


I Don't Blame You For Being You

by FallOut_Paramore (JetBlackSunshine)



Series: Sixteen Candles [1]
Category: Fall Out Boy, Paramore
Genre: Alternate Universe - A Little Less Sixteen Candles (Music Video), Gen, Hunters, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-08-17 09:18:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 48,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8138792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetBlackSunshine/pseuds/FallOut_Paramore
Summary: There's a reason why William turned Brendon and Pete into Vampires and it wasn't just for fun...... Cassie lives an ordinary life; but when she is rescued by a group of Vampire Hunters known as Fall Out Boy, she soon finds herself in the middle of a  dangerous plot where even one false move could change all their lives forever.Based on the "A Little Less Sixteen Candles" music video by Fall Out Boy and is set before, during and after it.





	1. Coffee's For Closers

**Author's Note:**

> This story (and it's Sequel) is actually finished and posted on Wattpad. However I've decided that I wanted to go back through and edit it. So I'm going to post it over here as well but instead of posting all the chapters at once I'll be editing it as I go along.  
> This was my first fan-fiction so there's bound to be loads of mistakes, but I hope you enjoy!

  
Have you ever felt like there was something more that you could do with your life? Like you were meant for more than just waiting tables or whatever lousy job that you'd gotten yourself into. Well, so did I and it came to me in a way that I didn't expect.

I sighed, as I looked around at the vacant tables of the infamous Chicago coffee house. I'd even been around the tables ten times scrubbing them to at least make myself look busy. My manager, Dan had gone to the supply shed across town and had left me in charge until he came back so I'd decided I could quit the act.

Eventually there was one costumer, a regular. He sat on one of the tall stools on the other side of the counter. He was dressed smartly in a bowler hat, suit and tie. He always caught my eye as he reminded me of something that had walked straight out of an early black and white film. Perhaps someone like Charlie Chapman or the like. It was a rare sight to see someone dressed as he was. He had me enthralled.

I watched covertly as he twirled his steaming cup of tea with the tip of his pinkie finger, what looked to be just slightly above the water. He moved it clockwise and then anti-clockwise around the rim of the cup, it was odd but it was just another way that I found him fascinating.

I was surprised at how much he'd been coming here recently. It had started small, a day or two here or there. But he seemed to be here every night now. Most of our regulars were day time customers or varied their hours, but he came at the same time almost every night. I knew at exactly eleven pm sharp that I would hear the familiar jangle and see him enter the doorway. It was unusual though, he didn't really talk, except for when he asked for his order and when he went to leave. He was unusually old-fashioned but he seemed harmless enough.

"Well, I'll be off then. Cheerio." He smiled, leaving a two-dollar bill as a tip on the table. He pushed the cup and money back across the bench towards me as he left.

I nodded, taking the cup over to the sink. I tried to hide my excitement as he walked away, tips were one of the things that I liked about my job. An extra dollar or two here or there made a massive difference to a girl living in an apartment on her own.

"Have a nice night." I smile, my customer service skills kicking in at his tip.

"You too." I heard him call from behind me with a slight nod of his head.

Moments later I heard the doorbell jangle, signalling that he had left.

I sighed, as I looked around the empty tables. My entertainment was gone, so what now. I noticed where the man had sat there was the slight ring of a tea marking on the table, it was boring but it was best to give the bench a quick wipe down. I soon found my feet tapping along to the radio as it blasted out a high-energy rock song about girls and dances that I hadn't heard before, but I decided I liked it.

When the bench was clean, I sat down on one of the stools and pulled out my compact mirror from my pocket. I opened the compact up, my unruly red dyed hair caught my eye first and as usual it was as un-tameable as ever, the hot weather we'd been having lately had made a total mess of it. My gold-plated name badge reading, "Hello my name is...Cassie" was on a bit of an angle. So, I straightened that up. When I was mildly happy with my appearance, I closed the compact. Satisfied only when I heard it click in place.

I put the compact back in my pocket, and froze when I heard an odd noise, It, sounded like the door was hitting back and forth as if it hadn’t been closed properly. I immediately looked to it, expecting someone to be trying to enter. The door here could get a bit jammed sometimes if a customer was coming in from outside. So, it wasn't so much of an oddity any other time of the day. However, at night we didn’t have too many customers.

Out the window, I spotted a dark shadow moving around outside, was it another customer? My best guess was that the door had jammed, and they’d thought we were closed for the night. It happened quite a lot. But they still looked to be lingering. Surely Bowler hat guy would've left by now. They didn't look like they were trying to come in anymore though. They paced up and back along the window, almost as if they were waiting for something.

I tilted my head, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever it was through the window. But it was almost pitch black outside except for the dim glow of the street lights and nothing much was happening. It was getting late, maybe I should just stack the chairs or something, rather than be nosy? I moved towards the nearest chair but froze as I saw a second black shadow come across the diner window and seemed to push the original shadow to the ground. Seconds later, an ear splitting male scream rung through my ears.

A shiver went up my spine and on automatic, I raced out to the window. In the darkness, I could make out that there were two guys fighting. Each of them wore an almost uniform bowler hat and suit. I paused, the one on the ground looked like bowler hat guy. I craned my neck and saw that the other had dark black hair. I didn't recognize him but I noticed he had pinned the other to the ground and was now forcefully leaning towards his neck. I saw the guys mouth move as if he was about to take a bite out of a sandwich. Shit, was he biting him? I rubbed my eyes it was almost midnight I concluded that I was probably just seeing things.

I didn't know what was going on, but I had to do something. If it was that guy, sure he never spoke but I couldn't just stand here and watch him get bitten by this weirdo! I had to help!

I ran for the doorway, and stood just in front of it. I put my hands to my hips and put on what I hoped was my ugliest scowl, I wanted it to look like I meant business.

"HEY!" I yelled. "Get away from him!"

Almost immediately the second man turned his head up. I gasped, he had pointed teeth, and dark feverish eyes. "Really, Princess? Perhaps you should look behind you?"

_Huh?_  I paused, taken by surprise by his comment.  _Look behind me? Why?_

In answer to my question, I felt something suddenly grab at me pulling me back towards the door. The next thing I knew something felt like it was digging at my neck. My whole body hurt and I began to feel faint almost instantly. It was almost as if whatever was attacking me was somehow sucking my life out. I struggled to breath, my heart pounded in my chest, I could feel my legs sinking closer to the ground. What on earth was happening, surely this was just some nightmare?

"BECKETT!" A voice snarled.

"Ah...Peter" A second voice replied. "I was wondering when you might turn up. Still haven't considered my offer, have we?"

A loud gun shot rang out and I felt whatever it was that had its arms on me, suddenly begin to drag me towards the ground. I began to feel dizzy and the world was tipping to its side. It appeared they were taking me down with them.

I felt their grip release, and I was suddenly falling at a much faster rate. Something warm grabbed at my sides and I fell weakly into the arms of someone wearing what felt like a leather jacket.

My vision blurred, I could faintly make out that my 'rescuer' had blonde hair and wore a black cap. He smiled at me, "It's okay, you're safe now."

I'm sure I gave a faint smile in return before the world began to grow darker, my eyes were getting tired. I heard some more yelling which began to turn to static. My head was pounding violently, and I felt my eyes close involuntarily. It seemed that perhaps life had other plans for me after all.


	2. Fresh Start Fever

"You reckon she's alive?"

"Well she did lose a lot of blood..."

"They only bit her, didn't they? It wasn't anything else, was it?"

"God, I hope not."

My head felt heavy when I opened my eyes. The ceiling was high but the lighting was dim, I could make out silver orbs hanging from the metal sheeting above me. One of the lights flickered and I couldn’t help but be afraid. I didn’t recognise this place at all, but it looked to be a warehouse. Slowly I sat up, looking around me. There were few game controllers sitting on the table in front of me. A sheet covering a group of objects on the other side of the room. There was a poster of a scary looking creature on the wall.

That wasn’t the worst part though. I froze as my eyes met with those of four unfamiliar looking males. Looks of concern and fear were worn on their faces. The one that stood closest to me was the shortest of the group and had blonde hair with distinct sideburns, he wore a black cap and was dressed in a black jacket. In his hands, he held a roll of bandages. He looked exhausted. My eyes turned to the guy that stood to the left of him, he had short hair that curled slightly at the tips as if he was about to grow it out, he looked unhappy and kind of tired as if someone had just dragged him out of bed for this. Standing slightly further away to the left with his arms crossed was another guy who’s most distinguishing feature was the detailed tattoos that decorated his arms. Then there was the fourth guy, who was standing near the window, but still staring at me. He had jet black hair that had a side fringe fell just slightly over his eyes and wore a bright red hoodie and black skinny jeans. He looked slightly nervous and at the same time kind of disinterested.

"How are you feeling?" The blonde asked, his eyes glazed with concern.

I realized that I'd been staring at them all, so I tried to think of an answer. Well, for starters my neck felt oddly sore, I patted the spot, noticing that there was a bandage covering it. I wondered if the blonde had been the one to put it there as he'd been the one holding them. Other than that, and a slight headache, I didn't feel too bad.

So why were they so concerned for me then? I scanned my thoughts for any memory of how or why I'd gotten here, suddenly I remembered. The late-night shift at the coffee house. I always knew it was dangerous and sometimes fights did break out. I'd seen one of our customers get attacked as they were leaving the building and I'd gone to defend them but I'd been attacked in the neck...by some animal...or perhaps it had been human...then a guy with blonde hair and a black cap had saved me.... I put two and two together, I gasped at the blonde, "You, you.... saved me...thank you."

He chuckled, seeming slightly embarrassed as his cheeks flushed pink, "It wasn't much really...I mean Joe was the one that got him...Pete and Andy took care of the dandies for us..."

"Uh...Patrick..."

The blonde paused, turning to look at the guy that stood behind him. It was the slightly curled hair guy that I'd noticed earlier.

"Perhaps you should have introduced us first..."

"Oh of course!" He smiled, before turning back to me, "Okay well I'm Patrick and this is Joe..."

He pointed to the guy who had just interrupted him as he gave a little nod.

"Then there's Andy..."

The guy with the tattoos uncrossed his arms to give a small wave and smile. He didn't seem as scary after that.

"And the one by the window is Pete."

Pete didn't really say much, he just turned away and started look out the window. I mentally decided that I didn't really like him already, at least the others had acknowledged me.

"You'll have to excuse him...he's kind of rude with new people especially because..."

"PATRICK!" Joe yelled, "We haven't decided if we're going to tell her about that."

"Okay, I get it. Sheesh..." Patrick sighed turning back to me, he put his eyes to my chest, "And you're Cassie, right?"

How on earth did he know that!? Was he a mind reader or something? Then I thought about it. Of course! I looked down to see that my now bloodstained shirt had my name badge still firmly pinned to my chest. It too was covered in a few blood stains, but it had survived my ordeal and it was still possible to read my name.

"Yeah...that's me." I said half-heartedly, I looked around at the four of them, "Sooo...what attacked me last night?"

Joe, Andy and Patrick exchanged nervous glances. I wondered why they seemed so nervous, I mean it couldn't be that bad a question to answer. I was sure that whatever those guys that had attacked me weren’t human or at the very least were a strange cult that liked biting other people. Maybe even that was a little too strange for Chicago.

After a long silence, Pete turned from the window and grumbled, "She may as well know. William and Brendon will probably be back after all. They want her."

The three other guys looked slightly startled at the fact that Pete had joined the conversation. I swear I saw Patrick gulp. I couldn't help but wonder who this William and Brendon were and what exactly they had to do with all of this.

"Uh well..." Patrick shifted uncomfortably looking at the guys behind him. "It was the Dandies, which are a gang of....um, vampires."

My heart missed a beat, Vampires? Surely, he didn't mean to say those were real. Instinctively I raised my arm to my neck, it made sense though the pain in my neck when that thing had bitten me, the way the guy had the other pinned to the ground, the guys pointed teeth and pale skin...they were vampires...and I had a feeling I'd messed with them.

"Hard to believe, huh?" Joe sighed.

"Yeah..."

But if I'd been bitten by a vampire did that mean I was going to turn into a vampire? Shit. When I decided to go out and defend that guy I had not seen this one coming.

"But if I was bitten does that mean..."

"You'll turn into a vampire?" Pete almost laughed, finishing my sentence, "As if it was that easy..."

I noticed the three other guys turn and glare at him, as if he'd said something he wasn't supposed to. I shivered, I wondered how people became vampires anyway.

"Anyway, the four of us, we're vampire hunters." Patrick smiled, turning his attention back to me, "We've been protecting the city from the Dandies and some of the other local groups for almost two years...but the problem is that there's starting to be more Dandies than we can handle on our own."

I gasped, Vampire Hunters. It sounded oddly dangerous...yet I couldn't help but be excited to find out what they were doing. All the lives they would be saving. I could imagine learning to protect myself and joining them. I felt a pull towards it. I wasn't sure why but I wanted in.

"That sounds so cool," I enthused, preparing to launch into asking them if I could help.

"And dangerous." Andy added. "I mean take Pete for example..."

"ANDY!" Joe interrupted him, looking fairly annoyed, "Not you too. We can't tell her all our secrets..."

Secrets? I was suddenly very interested. I sat closer to the end of the lounge.

Patrick nodded, "True, but I think we can trust her"

"Really Patrick? She's been here like a minute and you want to tell her everything!"

"It's just a gut feeling I have..."

"What like last time, when you almost got us all killed? You said you had a good feeling that night. Then remember what you said with what happened to Pete..."

"Far out guys! Will you stop mentioning that!" Joe groaned.

I bit down on my bottom lip, I was curious what the big deal was. From what I'd gathered it was only something where Pete had probably cheated death or something. If it was dangerous out there, so what? I'd nearly been killed out there tonight on my own. If the guys hadn't come along I don't know what would have happened. I wanted to help. I just had to work up the courage and ask.

"Perhaps you could teach me?" I spoke softly, yet still I hoped I'd be heard over the debate that continued to rage on.

I sat silently for a few seconds, but they continued squabbling, so I yelled louder, "Perhaps you could teach me?"

"What?" The three guys turned and stared at me, that time they'd heard me.

"Perhaps you could teach me to fight vampires, like you guys." I repeated.

There was silence as the guys considered it, Andy and Patrick stood there open mouthed but Joe on the other hand shook his head.

"I'm sorry Cassie, but you're kind of small and a girl. Vampires are dangerous creatures, I don't know if you'd be able to handle it." Joe shrugged.

That comment made my blood boil, I didn’t like it when people factored in that I was girl or because I was small, meant that I couldn’t do something. Reaching the top shelf in a supermarket was hard sure, but I’m sure with some training I’d have a shot at taking on a vampire or at least be able to distract one so that the guys could get into it. I was just about to launch into a whole speech about girls being able to do things just as good as guys, when Patrick raised his hand. He'd clearly noticed my annoyance.

"Joe, enough. Perhaps she'd be alright at it, but I just don't know after what happened to P-"

"Why don't you just tell her?" Pete snapped from the other side of the room, causing me to jump. He looked at the three of them angrily, "Seriously guys...or better yet why don't I just show her."

"Pete, no..."

It was too late for Patrick to stop him, Pete glided his way over to my side of the room in an inch of a second, and he opened his mouth exposing two elongated pointed fangs. I gasped at what I saw. It was right there in front of me, but it couldn't be true.

There was no way a Vampire Hunter could be a Vampire! Why hadn't they just killed him? Had he killed someone? I panicked, was he going to try and bite me? I should just leave now, he probably already has plans for me...

I took a deep breath; my thoughts became a little more rational. If Pete was here, and wasn't outside with those other guys, those... Dandies. The ones who had attacked me, he couldn't possibly be like them. He couldn't be evil. I decided, no matter what he was, I wasn't afraid of him.

"I'm not scared of you." I tried to say in the strongest voice I could muster, I didn't want them to think I had any problems with him, "...But, what happened?"

Pete stared at me for a second as if he was surprised I'd even dare to ask that, then shook his head.

"I don't want to talk about it, at least not right now," He sighed as he closed his mouth, his eyes staring into mine, "but all I'm saying is think about the choice you're making. There's certain consequences that come with this job if you're not careful."

"I'm so sorry..." I sighed somehow finding it within me to look him in eyes. I don't know whether I'm just an idiot, but even knowing that Pete was made into one himself. I still thought of Vampire hunting as something worthwhile. "...but I still want to be involved. You say that this William and Brendon guy are probably going to come, back right? Look, I can't just waltz on back to the coffee shop knowing that one day they might just come back and attack me again! Especially when I could have been doing something much more worthwhile, even if there are...consequences."

I looked at Pete who was still staring me right in the eyes. I held my breath, he was about to say no, I was sure. But, surprisingly he nodded, and a fanged smile broke out across his face, "I think she'll be fine guys."

Patrick nodded behind him. "I think so too...I'm impressed. You’ve handled this amazingly Cassie."

All the room's attention was then focused on Andy and Joe, who exchanged glances with one another. I took a deep breath, Andy hadn't really said much about the matter but Joe had made a point earlier that because I was a girl I wouldn't be able to handle it.

"Oh, what the heck, Patrick's right. I mean it wouldn't hurt to have another hunter around." Andy smiled at me.

Joe nodded in agreement, "Well we've never had to train a girl, but considering all what we've told her about you know what, and she hasn't run out the place yet. She's off to a good start."

"Well that settles it then." Pete nodded, "Welcome to the team Cassie."

The rest of the guys nodded in agreement. I noticed Andy already begin to walk away, and Joe started to shuffle with some papers in front of him.

"Uh...so when do I start training?" I say in a nervously enthusiastic way.

Patrick nodded, "You're still not a hundred percent, so get some rest first and we'll start tomorrow evening."

I nodded eagerly, I was so ready for this! I couldn't wait to get started, I was going to be something to do something amazing with my life and it all started tomorrow.

I yawned loudly as I felt my sudden burst of energy beginning to dwindle, I needed some sleep. The guys seemed to notice.

"Uh...perhaps we should move her to some better quarters? I don't think our lounge is the most comfortable place for anyone to rest." Joe suggested.

"Of course!" Patrick gasped, "If she's going to be living with us she can't possibly sleep comfortably out here."

"Living here?" I butted in.

"Well of course? What did you expect?" Joe sighed, "I mean we can't have you going home when there's a vampire out hunting you."

I thought about it, I lived alone on the second story of a small apartment. I could imagine, two vampires easily being able to climb into the trees near my bedroom or even get into the stairwell and pick the lock to my room. They were right, it would be a pretty easy place for a vampire to break into to attack me. Besides if I wanted to be a vampire hunter, I knew I needed to live here so that they could teach me.

"Oh, I didn't think of that. You're probably right. I live alone so there's not really anyone who can help me if they do come..."

Patrick nodded, "That's right, which makes even more of a reason for you to stay here. If something does happen we'll all be here to help."

"And don't worry, we'll go collect your stuff for you if you'd like. You probably don't want to have to share our clothes." Andy teased.

I imagined trying to wear Patrick's jacket or Pete's red hoodie...they were like the kinds of things I usually wore but I always felt weird wearing other people's clothing. I figured it would be fine if they went and collected some stuff from my apartment for me.

I felt in my pocket finding my order pad from work and my apartment key, I quickly scribbled my address onto the piece of paper. Then handed the keys and the piece of paper over to Patrick who took it and passed it to Andy.

"Anyway, follow me and I'll take you up to your room." Patrick smiled as he raised out a hand to help me up.

I took his hand and let myself be dragged out of the room. My head stung a little as I did, probably because I'd gotten up so quick. As we left, I could hear murmuring from behind us, clearly from the other guys, I tried to block them out, I didn't want to hear if they were saying anything about me.

As I was led into the corridor by Patrick, I soon realized that this place was a warehouse. There was a set of about six or so doors. Almost all of them were open except one with the words "Pete's Room: Keep Out" engraved upon it. I wanted to ask why, but with my new knowledge that Pete was a vampire I didn't really have the guts to ask Patrick about it. I had a feeling I'd tested the guy’s patience enough tonight.

"Here we are," Patrick smiled, his hand extended into a room at the end of the corridor. I followed his gaze and looked inside. It was impressive for a spare room, the walls were painted blue and there was a lot of simple things in there like a bed, a dresser and a mirror, there was a door that lead to an en-suite bathroom. It was more than I could've asked for. I felt lucky, this beat my tiny apartment back in town.

"Thank you, Patrick, this is wonderful." I smiled, semi wanting to give him a hug for all that he'd done for me. I decided against it because that would be weird, we'd only just met.

Awkwardly he smiled and nodded, "Let me or the guys know if you need anything."

I nodded, "I will."

"Oh, and maybe you might want to get changed..." Patrick sighed, looking me up and down. "There's some clothes you can change into on the bed."

What on earth was he talking about? I looked down, soon realising what he meant. I hadn't yet managed to get changed out of my bloodstained uniform.

"Right."

"Night...well morning but whatever..." He gave a quick embarrassed smile.

I nodded, giving a grateful smile in return, it was clear he was trying to make me feel better.

I watched as he walked out the room, closing the door behind him as he left.

I think it's time to get out of these clothes, I thought as I turned to my attention back to what I was wearing. Patrick had mentioned that there were some I could change onto on the bed. I walked towards it and found a t-shirt and some baggy pants, I wondered how they'd gotten there as they hadn't known I was staying. What was I thinking, they probably had spares set up for this kind of situation? I peeled my old clothes off and replaced them with the new ones. My borrowed clothes were a little baggy but even though I hated borrowing it felt a lot better to be out of the blood-stained ones.

I sighed, I was exhausted. I dumped my blood-stained uniform to the floor. Before I flopped down onto the soft mattress, it was like heaven. The pillow was extremely soft. I could tell that after the past few hours I'd had that I would be out like a light.

After getting comfortable, I let myself get lost in my thoughts. What an unexpected night it had turned into, one minute I'd been waiting tables, the next I was joining a team of what I hoped were super awesome vampire hunters who had saved my life. Even with the consequence that Pete had delivered. I felt confident about this new chapter, I was probably the happiest girl alive.

I closed my eyes, this time buzzing at what the next night would bring.


	3. Homesick At Space Camp

I had been so freaking wrong about how much fun Vampire hunter training was going to be. Every muscle, bone, limb I had, hurt like hell. I was sure that I'd used muscles that had never even been used before. It made me feel pretty unfit, but the guys had assured me that it was all totally normal.

To be honest, I did enjoy training, it just hurt a lot. I'd already been here for a few days now and while I had to admit I was improving I just wanted to do something other than run laps around the warehouse and warm up exercises. Basically, it wasn't quite what I expected, I wanted some action! That was the very reason I'd spent the entire time begging and pleading to them that I should actually learn to use a weapon, I'd had little success. Until today, when they'd finally given me one. I was amazed, I was starting to think I was going to be forever weaponless.

"Okay, give it another go Cassie, you almost had it that time." Andy assured, handing me the stake that I'd been trying to land in the dummies chest target from a distance. Let's just say despite my enthusiasm it wasn't going too well, I sucked.

I aimed for the target once more, just as Andy had described. I put pressure into my back leg, I held it behind my ear like a shot put, I swung it forward, forcing my body to move along with it. I put all of my strength into the stake as I released it. It soared through the air gracefully like a paper plane. A swell of excitement grew in my chest. It didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon, perhaps it was finally going to make it?

Then, gravity got hold and it just landed on the ground with a clunk. I groaned.

The stake had landed a few centimetres short of the target. I sighed, no matter what I did I just couldn't seem to get the stake to even go far enough to hit the dummy let alone get it to go where I wanted.

"Oh! So close! I'm sure you'll get it next time!" Andy enthused.

No matter how much Andy encouraged me, I wasn't really feeling that I was getting any closer, it was as if the stakes would reach some invisible barrier and just fall to the ground. I knew I was only learning, but I kind of wanted to impress them a little by being able to do something straight away.

"Maybe I'm more suited for guns, or hand to hand combat..." I mumbled, before my next turn.

"Hate to break it to you but the only one who can use hand to hand combat around here is me, Cassie." Pete teased from the sidelines, his sensitive hearing had clearly picked up what I'd said. I was still getting used to him being able to do that. Apparently it was one of the abilities he had as a Vampire. To me, all it did was give him more opportunities to be a jerk.

It annoyed me, all he'd been doing for the past few hours was just sitting and watching us. Over the past few days he hadn't really taught me anything yet, he mainly observed and gave the occasional teasing comment. So far it had mainly been Joe and Andy who'd been teaching me about fighting by giving me training exercises and such.

Patrick, on the other hand was constantly on the other side of the warehouse floor working on something else entirely. Occasionally when I looked over it appeared that he was writing in a giant notebook. While other times I would see the odd spark fly up from his work desk. When I'd gone over to him and straight out asked what he was doing he hadn't answered, Joe had teased that he was just being a mad genius and not to let it get to me. I was seriously starting to wonder if he was right.

"How about I give you another demo?" Andy suggested, ignoring Pete, "Honestly, you have all the moves right. You just have to work out how to get enough power to make it go a bit further. That's all. You'll get it. I mean this is only our first real practice with it you know, you're doing pretty well."

"I know." I pouted, though it didn't help the fact that I still felt like a little toddler that wasn't able to do simple things like reach the sink.

"How about we give some other weapons a go?" Patrick smiled, his voice coming from behind me. I spun around to face him. I found that in one hand he held a long, silver object that resembled a sword. In his other hand were a bunch of round see through objects, they looked kind of cloudy and murky looking on the inside.

Pete joined us in a flash, he seemed to stare at each of the items as if inspecting them. He nodded at the sword, but pulled a face at the sight of the round objects. I wondered what was wrong with them.

"Are you really sure you should be giving her those yet?" Pete asked, glaring at Patrick.

Patrick shrugged, as if didn't know what Pete meant. Joe and Andy didn't seem to have any misgivings either. Pete looked around at them, he looked a little bit annoyed. What was his problem?

"Fine. Just keep those round ones away from me Cassie." He warned, his attention changing to me.

"W-"

"They're garlic bombs, they burn a Vampires skin." Joe added. "Pete hates them."

Oh, I got it. Vampires were said to be allergic to Garlic. It seemed that myth was true. Though to a degree I wish I hadn't worked it out. I'd was only just getting used to the fact that he could hear, see and do things faster and stronger than all of us. It reminded me that Pete wasn't human and if he really wanted to he could have probably killed us at any moment. I shivered at the thought.

"Okay...taking from that reaction, I guess we won't look at them today..." Patrick blushed, tucking them into his pockets "we'll just try this one instead."

He handed me the sword like object, I grabbed it finding the most comfortable way to hold it. It was slightly heavier than I expected it to be, but it was still light weight.

"Okay...so what am I supposed to do with it?"

Patrick smiled, "Well I noticed that you're quite skilled with that stake, but not on getting it to go long range. You have the precision down pat that it would require to take care of a gun like Joe and myself, but I'm worried that the weight of one might slow you down. Obviously you don't have the vampire strength of Pete. So, as he pointed out hand to hand simply won't do. However you're a girl and I've noticed you're fairly quick. The vampires won't suspect you to be a hunter so you should be able to get a bit closer. So we're going to try this."

I nodded, this was all well and good but I had a few concerns, "But how? Aren't I going to need to attack a moving target?"

Patrick smiled, and I realized he had a plan, he pointed beside him, "Pete's volunteered to help out."

I stopped for a second, Pete volunteered to have me try and attack him? I found that hard to believe, he hadn't really helped out much at all with any of this. Then I thought about it, if I was learning to use this on Vampires and he was one what would happen if I hit him in the chest? I couldn't live with myself if something bad happened.

Patrick seemed to know what I was thinking, "Oh, Don't worry, if you strike him with this one it won't actually hurt him. This practice sword will compact itself on impact, so you'll get practice against a real vampire without hurting one. When we go out, if it works, I'll give you the real thing."

Pete nodded.

"Okay..." I replied not feeling too sure, Pete was a vampire after all. He would be pretty strong. Were the guys really sure that I was ready for this?

"I won't go easy on you," Pete whispered his breath on my ear as we walked to the area the guys had set out for us. All I could do was grimace, "Hey, don't give me that look. You'll have to face a lot worse than me in the real world okay?"

I took a deep breath. Pete was right, a vampire in the real world wasn't going to go easy on me just because I was learning. So why should he?

The guys made us stand at opposite ends of the warehouses training area, Patrick, Joe and Andy stood in the center off to the side. It was clear they wanted to stay out the way. That didn't make me feel any better, I had a feeling this whole exercise was going to hurt. Who'd come up with this anyway?

When we were in position, the guys began to countdown numbers, my stomach did flip-flops.

"3...

2....

1....

Go!"

As the word 'go' echoed around the walls, I found that Pete was running straight for me with his fangs beared and his eyes staring into me intensely. If I didn't know this was a practice I would've thought it was for a real. He hadn't been kidding when he said he wasn't going to go easy on me, which meant I had to think fast.

When I'd learned to play baseball in high school, we'd been taught a technique to use when you got to base at the end of your run. It involved a certain way you needed to slide so that you had more time to get there, I'd been pretty good at it. Well maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to try but that was the first thing that came to mind. It was worth a shot.

I saw a gap between where Pete was running and realized that if I did it in enough time, I could probably perform that move and slide right under him.

He was getting closer with every second that passed. I took a deep breath, would this really work?

A few more seconds....

He was beginning to lean forward, and arched his back as if he was about to leap into the air. He was going to try and jump over me. Perfect, that's what I wanted him to do.

Now.

I ran a few steps in his direction, I held my sword out hoping to fool him into thinking I was going to try and strike him. I held it there for a few seconds, before I simply let my body fall towards the ground, as I stuck my left forward and I used the slightly slippery nature of the ground to slide right beneath him. I watched as he flew above me and I narrowly managed to dodge his legs in the process, quickly I pulled myself up from the ground as he turned around, but I had a plan and was faster. I brought the sword to his chest quickly bringing it down on him and watching as it compacted itself into just its handle. Pete's eyes widened in shock, and I'm pretty sure mine did too. It was obvious he had been really trying to beat me.

I heard the guys clapping and cheering behind me.

"Wow Cassie! That was impressive." Andy smiled, "No one except a vampire has ever done anything even close to that to him before."

"If that had been for real, I'm sorry dude, but you would've been dead. She really had you." Joe teased, patting Pete on the back.

Patrick nodded looking pretty pleased, "That was amazing Cassie! Let's try it again!"

Pete sighed as if he'd had enough, before his expression changed and he flashed a cheeky grin, "Best of three?"

I nodded, perhaps I'd finally found something I didn't suck at after all.

*******************

I was exhausted. I'd managed to beat Pete with the sword another two times except for the last one where he'd pushed me to the ground before I could find a way to get behind him. He seemed to be learning from me as well.

But the thing that had me the most excited was that the guys had said I was pretty much ready! Which meant that tomorrow night I would be going with the guys on my first hunt! I wondered if that was why they had put me against Pete, to see how I'd handle fighting against a Vampire. I didn't care though, this was a massive achievement.

I walked into my new room, which was now decorated with all the bits and bobs the guys had brought back for me from my apartment. Which was now up for lease, along with my job which I'd had to hand in as the guys and I had come to the agreement I couldn't go back to either of those places. It was too risky, William would go back there and we knew that. I'd sort some money out later...

I was about to go to bed when I realized I was really craving a glass of water. I sighed, back down the hallway I'd have to go then. I entered the hallway. 

"So what do you think will happen now?"

I stopped dead in my tracks. I could hear voices, but who was it? I strained to listen. It sounded distant, like it was coming from a room nearby. I glance down the hallway spotting Patrick's room, the only door slightly ajar. Was that where it was coming from? I approached careful not to make too loud a noise. 

"I hate to have to do it to her but we all know she can't go back there. Brendon and William were out the front of her apartment waiting for her. It was unsettling, I'm worried they might trace her back here. So we had to take a lot of back roads and made lots of stops. I mean we even waited for the sun to come back up before we came back here, just to be safe."

I recognized it as Patrick's, which was soon followed by what I assumed was Pete.

"Don't worry about it Patrick. You did the right thing. There's something they want with her...I mean he was pretty dedicated even for him. I watched William every night for a fortnight go into that coffee shop. If I'd realized sooner that he was up to anything sinister. I could've stopped him. I had no clue until she came out and he sent that other guy onto her."

William was that guy in the Coffee shop? The charming, silent guy I had served all those nights? Wow, out of all the customers I'd ever served I would never have expected him to be some crazy vampire.

"You couldn't have known Pete." Patrick sighed.

"I could've prevented half of this. Then she wouldn't have even found out Vampires existed." The voice I now assumed was Pete. 

There was silence for a few moments, and I thought their conversation was finished. I prepared myself to make a mad dash in case the door opened. 

"Thankfully we were all there that night or I don't know what he would've done to her. What it could have meant for us." Pete sighed, "Patrick, I'm concerned, normally if a human escapes from him he wouldn't find out where they lived and wait at their apartment. But there's no doubt about it he want's Cassie for something, we have to find out what before he tries to kill her or worse...."

I took a deep breath, on the other hand they were talking about me and I wasn't sure if I liked it. I wasn't mad at them, but I wasn't too happy either. I suddenly didn't want that glass of water anymore. Besides, I really didn't feel like getting caught eavesdropping. So, I turned on my heel and headed straight back down the corridor to my room.

I flopped down on the bed, Pete's words swam around in my head.

"He want's Cassie for something. We have to find out what before he tries to kill her or worse...."

From the little bit I'd heard, It looked as though I wasn't quite out of the woods yet. Sure I had a start on defending myself and that had to help at least more than if I hadn't asked to be trained. However, I had a feeling I didn't want to find out what was going to happen if William and Brendon did ever find me. Why did they want me anyway? There's nothing special about a girl that worked at a Coffee shop was there? Sure I could make a mean cup of coffee but surely there wasn't anything a power hungry Vampire would want. Was there?


	4. Pressure

There was an air of nervousness around the hunter's household that evening. It had now been exactly two weeks since I'd joined them and it was the first time they were taking me on a hunt. I had to admit I was terrified. Well okay, originally I wasn't, I was pretty excited. That was before I'd come to the crumbling realization that I could get myself hurt out there and how dangerous it was. I thought I'd accepted all that stuff, but clearly I hadn't. I mean, I'd spent a good part of the last hour locked in my room just brushing my hair, so much that it actually looked straight for once, that was saying something.

There was a loud bash on the en-suite door.

"Are you ever coming out? Come on, we have to leave now."

I knew it was Joe. I paused, we had to leave now? My nervous butterflies intensified at the thought, it felt more like my stomach was being hit with bricks than butterflies. Was I really going to go out there?

"Are you even in there? Do we have to break the door down?"

"Don't say that to her Joe..." A second voice, I assumed was Patrick's by the tone, "Is everything okay in there?"

Okay, I had to stop carrying on like this, I was making them worried. I couldn't keep stalling, it was time to go out there and face them. Slowly, I opened the door, Joe was standing there with arms crossed. Patrick stood to the side of him. They were both dressed in black, and had a gun slung to their backs. I didn't want to piss them off.

"Yeah, of course I'm coming." I smiled at them.

Don't let them know you're afraid. I thought, as I ran my hand through my hair. I noticed Joe raise an eyebrow at it. 

"Good, because we're leaving now." Joe spoke, "Meet you in the car."

I nodded, and watched as Joe dashed away down the corridor.

"Sorry about that. You're nervous aren't you?" Patrick whispered, as we walked along the corridor.

"Yeah..." I admitted, for some reason I couldn't lie to him about that.

"Don't worry about it, I was the same way. When Andy and Pete invited Joe and I to come with them. I was so excited at first, then I became really nervous. I didn't achieve much that night but it went okay. To be honest, you've probably had a lot more practice than we'd had that night."

I gave him a grateful smile, and that Patrick's first night hunting hadn't ended badly. Hopefully mine wouldn't either. I was curious as to why they started fighting against vampires in the first place though, surely their had to be a reason for it. I was about to ask about it when we arrived at a black car with a white bat with a heart shape in the center on the car's bonnet. I was impressed, I thought that it looked pretty awesome. 

Andy hoped into the passengers seat and Joe sat at the wheel. Clearly, I was going to be a back-seat passenger. Patrick opened the door for me, "Ladies first." He smiled.

I quickly jumped in the back row and wiggled my way over into the middle and was soon joined on either side by Pete and Patrick.

As the engine roared to life, we drove through a dense forest. Before that moment, I hadn't realised how isolated we were out here. To be honest, I hadn't actually left the boundaries of the warehouse since I'd arrived here two weeks ago and hadn't thought much about where we were located. It seemed we weren't too far out of Chicago though because eventually the scenery began to change as we entered the town. Trees were replaced with buildings and I watched as the city lights began to dance by us. People walked the streets in shadowy packs, some on first dates and others out for nights with their friends. 

It was actually strange for me being out this early in the night. By the time I used to crawl back to my apartment, it was late so all the towns lights would usually be off, it was a sight to see them in their glory. 

Suddenly, the car veered around a corner before coming to an abrupt halt, shaking me out of my thoughts. I looked around us, asphalt and neat rows of bright yellow lines covered the ground. It looked like a car-park, yet there wasn't a car in sight.

"The Vampires are usually a bit more placid over this end of town. In other words they're a lot easier to manage." Patrick whispered from beside me, "we thought this was the best place to start."

I was tempted to say to avoid the Dandies, namely William and Brendon but I bit my tongue. I may have been able to admit I was feeling nervous but I wasn't ready to tell them I'd heard their conversation.

We stepped out of the car, I stuck myself between Pete and Patrick, and I felt safer standing between them. At the end of the day one was a vampire and the other was an experienced with a gun. Surely that had to count for something? I mean, it was better standing here than being out here in the open alone or back in my room in my apartment waiting for William and Brendon to find me. Ugh don't even think of that.

We didn't have to wait long for the vampires to come....There was a pack of about ten of them, they wore leather jackets and all had slicked back hair, from the way they strutted along the asphalt made them seem pretty cocky. They kept pointing at us and sniggering, I figured it was to try and put us off. However what frightened me as they drew closer was the realization that fighting with Pete suddenly seemed like nothing. If Pete had me in a position where he could hurt me, he'd stop. I realized with my heart sinking, that these guys wouldn't. They were 'real' vampires, I had to fight them or be killed myself. Pete suddenly seemed like a teddy-bear compared to them. I instantly wasn't okay with all of this, my breathing became shallow

"It's okay, just breathe." Patrick smiled from beside me, noticing my panic.

"Remember what we taught you, you can do this." Pete nodded, I was relieved that he wasn't being a jerk tonight. "Don't let them see your afraid."

They're right, I supposed as I composed myself, focusing on looking brave. I wasn't quite sure how convincing it was, but it was the best I could do.

A loud gun shot rang through my ears, and I saw a flash of lightning come from Joe's direction. I watched in awe as one of the guys in the Vampire gang fell solidly to the ground. The other vampires snarled angrily, it was on.

They acted first by racing towards us at full speed. I watched in amazement as Patrick shot down another one, just as Joe had done. I felt Pete leave my side as he raced forward pushing off the ground to leap over a tall vampire with a lot of piercings. The Vampire stared at him in shock, as he flew over his head. Pete landed safely on the other side and spun around to run back towards him like I'd done to him in our practice. Maybe he really was learning from me?

That was when things started to go down hill, the vampire in question locked eyes with me instead. He snarled before he changed his direction, and started heading towards me. Pete tried to grab onto his back and pull him back towards the ground but he couldn't keep up with him, I gulped. This guy was fast, I was in trouble.

What was I thinking? This was my chance to prove myself. Taking a deep breath, I carefully examined the situation. I couldn't use one of my base dives, he was coming at me much quicker than Pete had ever been, so it wouldn't be as easy to get the timing right to go under his legs and come around and find a place to stake him. Pete had already proved that wouldn't work so well and he was a lot quicker than me. Before I could formulate my plan, I found an arm swinging at my face, instinctively I ducked just as Pete had taught me.

As I dropped to the ground, I scrapped my arm on the asphalt, I hoped I wasn't bleeding. I didn't have time to look, instead I assessed the situation. As I was on a lower angle, I had an idea.

I quickly fumbled with the button on my sword watching as it extended to it's full size, and pierced it straight into the vampire's leg. He snarled, grabbing me by the end of my t-shirt and lifting me above his head and beginning to spin me around like a rag doll. I felt sick, perhaps that hadn't been the best idea.

Seconds later, I felt his hands retract and I was pushed away into the air, much like I'd done to the stake in my practice goes in the warehouse. I wondered if this was the world's way of paying me back for that, giving me a taste of my own medicine. Then I was falling, I closed my eyes, this was going to hurt so bad.

I landed into something hard yet soft. It felt leathery.

Well, that hadn't been the impact I'd expected. I looked up to find it had once again been Patrick who'd saved me. Thankfully he didn't look too upset. He actually looked kind of relieved. He helped put me right on the ground.

I watched as he gave a thumbs up to someone in the distance and I looked to see that Pete had just used his fist to punch the vampire I'd been fighting in the head. He held his arm out and I watched as Andy's rapier flew through the air towards him. He caught it before he struck the Vampires chest.

The vampire fell to the ground with a thud. I shivered.

I watched as Pete threw the rapier back through the air, it landing almost seamlessly in Andy's hands. Pete stomped his way towards us, Joe and Andy walking slowly behind him. He didn't look impressed. My heart sunk, I knew I'd messed up.

"You took your eyes off him, I saw you watching me." Pete snarled shaking his head and pointing at me, He paused for a moment, his voice sounding a lot calmer, "Other than that, the leg stabbing was pretty good. You just needed to make sure you were protected first. Lucky Patrick and I were there to save you."

The other three guys shrugged, as if they couldn't understand what he was saying.

"I'm sorry." I managed to whisper, my eyes falling to the ground. I couldn't bare to look him in the eyes, he'd said I did okay but the way he'd just yelled at me made me feel pretty awful. I knew he was right.

"Ignore him, you did awesome." Andy said, nudging me on the shoulder. I looked up to him, he was smiling at me. I tried to give a smile in return, but it just felt weak.

"Just get in the car." Pete grumbled.

I jumped in fright, at the noise and opened the car door and began to slide into the back seat. Just as I was making my way in, Patrick's hand stopped me.

"Andy's right, even though you nearly got yourself bitten you did pretty well for your first time out." Patrick smiled, before whispering, "Pete won't admit it but he did the same thing as you. Joe had to come to save him."

"I can hear you." Pete grumbled.

Joe and Andy rolled their eyes and nodded. I found that I couldn't help but smile at that one, I secretly wondered if it was true or just something to cheer me up.

"And Cassie...clean that wound up before you attract half the town's Vampires." Pete snarled.

Huh? I looked down to my arm where I'd grazed it on the asphalt. It was only bleeding a little, but it must have been enough for Pete to smell it. Patrick pulled out a first-aid kit from underneath the front seat, he applied some kind of lotion on the wound, then passed me a gauze band-aid. I quickly applied it, I really didn't feel like finding out of Pete was right about it attracting the town's vampires.

When my back seat medical treatment was complete, Joe started the engine and we set back off into the night. After what they'd said about Pete, I was curious about something. I turned to look at Patrick.

"I have to ask, how long you have known each other?"

"Since Joe and I were in first grade." Patrick smiled, "Pete and Andy tried to punch up a guy in our year who was trying to take Joe and I's lunch money."

Andy chuckled from the front seat, "I can still remember that guys look when two second graders came to tell him off. He couldn't argue with us, could he Pete?"

Pete didn't reply. I noticed that he just kept looking out the car window looking a little upset. I wondered if for some reason it was hard for him talking about this stuff.

I noticed we were getting back close to the warehouse because the buildings were turning back into trees. I guessed that must have been enough hunting for the night, I looked at the clock on the dashboard, it was now two am in the morning. That fight had gone for a lot longer that I'd realized.

Suddenly I felt Pete tense up beside me, his hands curling into fists. What was his problem this time?

"No..." I heard him mutter.

I looked over to him, he was now staring at something out the front window. I followed his gaze, everything just looked pitch black out there to me.

"Joe! Do something! Just pull over or turn back around. Just something." He yelled, his voice suddenly filled with panic.

The rest of the car looked at Pete in confusion.

He quickly, spun around to look at me. "Beckett..." He stopped, shaking his head, "I mean William. He's following us."

The car went quiet. Soon, everyone was soon looking out the window. It was odd how every tree suddenly seemed to me like a Vampire shape, but each time I'd squint I'd realize that it wasn't.

"It's too late." Andy sighed, pointing at a second fleeing Vampire in front of the car, near the warehouse. I assumed if William was here it was most likely Brendon, who was standing in front of the warehouse, "They've already found us."

Joe pulled over quickly. I realized that it wasn't worth trying to drive through them. We knew they'd just attack us when we got to the warehouse anyway.

"You reckon we should get out?" Andy asked,

"Yeah, it's not much use sitting here."

I watched as Patrick opened the passenger door, I was about to follow him when Pete tapped me on the shoulder.

"Don't forget this." He sighed, passing me over my sword that I'd left on the floor of the car.

"Thanks." I gave a grateful smile.

I followed the rest of the guys to the front of the car, Pete jumped on top of it. I looked around, everything was empty and silent, with not a Dandy to be seen. It was odd why had they left so quickly?

"Where did they go?" Joe eventually asked.

"Shh." Pete snapped at him, as he slid from the bonnet of the car.

We stood out there in the open for another few moments. It was starting to feel a little ridiculous, there was not a soul around. I could actually imagine Beckett and Brendon watching us from the trees and laughing at us, it seemed that stupid. I couldn't help feeling that we were all a little too paranoid over this.

"Maybe we were all just seeing things?" I suggested, hoping I was right. Though it certainly didn't feel like it.

"I know what I saw." Pete grumbled, "Damn, Beckett"

The rest of the guys shrugged, and we jumped back in the car. Something still didn't feel right though, I had a feeling the two vampires that were after me had been there for real. And if they were here it meant that they had found our hide out. Shit.


	5. Fake It

_"And you're just the girl all the boys want to dance with,_

_And I'm just boy who's had too many chances,"_

Okay, I was awake. I rolled over in annoyance, someone had their music way too loud for this time of morning.... well evening because of our nocturnal schedule. But I was ready to be mad at whoever was playing it.

I rubbed my eyes sleepily as I let out a yawn. Perhaps I wouldn't be so bothered by it if it weren't for the nightmares that had been plaguing me these past few nights. Everyone had involved William. I wondered if it was a subconscious part of me that brought him into my dreams because I knew that he was searching for me. I'd been in a cold sweat as he'd chased me through alleyway after alleyway. I had no weapons in my dream and no way of fighting back. I'd never felt so helpless as I did in those dreams. They always ended in the same way, him cornering me, pulling my neck back and turning me into a vampire. The guys would always appear next and I would always try to attack them, as if I was William's little puppet. I couldn't help but be scared that these dreams meant something.  

I was just glad I hadn't screamed during any of them. Otherwise I'd have had all the guys running into my room and having to explain it to them. It wasn't easy to explain that your dreams involved killing all of them. I guess we were friends now but I didn't want them to think I was psycho.  

I sighed, like I'd ever let any of those two things happen, I wasn't going to become a vampire and I wasn't going to do anything to the guys. Still, I had run my tongue over my teeth at least three times to make sure I hadn't grown fangs over the night, it sounds dumb but I had to be sure it was a just a dream. 

After my quick check, I dragged myself out of bed, and followed the corridor to the living room where the noise seemed to be coming from. 

_"I don't blame you for being you, but you can't blame me for hating it..._

_So, what are you waiting for?_

_Kiss her, kiss her_

_I set my clocks early because I know I'm always late..."_

Music continued to flood my ears, and I realized that it wasn't the radio someone was performing in the warehouse, but where? Cautiously I poked my head in the living room, I didn't want to disrupt someone on accident. I noticed the curtain that had lined one of the walls was now pulled back and the guys were all behind an instrument. At the back was Andy on the drums it was dark so I couldn't tell much more than that, Joe and Pete were on guitars. Joe's was brown and black and Pete's was black and red with a small bat heart on one corner like the one on the car. Patrick stood in front at the mic and was also holding a white guitar.

Impressed, I walked into the room and stood in the doorway to watch.

_"Write me off, give up on me,_

_Cause darling, what did you expect?_

_I'm just off a lost cause_

_A long shot, don't even take this bet."_

Pete jumped up the side of the wall and did a back flip in mid-air. I knew it was a vampire thing but I couldn't deny that he had talent to be able to do that. 

When the song finally finished, My hand claps echoed through the warehouse. Alarmed the guys looked up from their instruments and blinked at me with surprise. I guess they hadn't noticed I was there.

"Hey, that sounded great! It was an awesome cover," I smiled, at them hoping to ease the awkwardness, "I heard that song the other night on the radio...uh, before I got attacked. What's it called?"

There was silence for a moment as the guys looked between one another, they looked a bit stuck as if they didn’t have an answer for me.

Joe took a deep breath and answered. "Sixteen Candles...and uh it's not a cover it's our song...."

What?! I stared at them, my mouth fell to the floor. They had a song that was on the radio? How did I not realize this earlier? I was terrible at keeping up with radio music.

"Yeah, we were a band, we were getting fairly popular too.... till what happened with Pete..." Andy muttered.

Patrick nodded, "It meant we had to stay here, too many people could find out what was going on...so we had to call a hiatus..."

Oh, it made sense now. It was true, I wondered what would happen if a fan found out their secret, sometimes their reaction might be like mine totally accepting...well kind of. But what would happen if someone was the opposite? Things could end very badly.

I heard a loud crash, and turned to the noise just in time to see Pete's red and black bat-heart bass guitar fall to the ground. I couldn’t help but think he would break it if he wasn’t careful. He crossed his arms. I realized he was doing that thing again where he didn't like talking about the past. I could kind of understand this time, it would suck knowing you'd ruined your friends and your own dream.

"Anyway enough about that, tonight we’re going out and Andy and Cassie are being bait." Pete announced, drawing the conversation to him, it surprised me, he'd kept quiet the entire conversation.

 _Bait?_ I didn't like that word too much. I sounded disposable, almost like a meal. I glared at Pete in annoyance. And it appeared I wasn't the only one.

"Guys come on! Why is it always me!" Andy moaned, from behind the drum kit his arms thrown in the air as he held his drumsticks tightly.

Patrick and Joe looked at each other, neither looking brave enough to stand up to Pete's decision. Pete on the other hand only shrugged, before looking between the group of us.

"Well it can't be me, can it?" He grumbled, "Anyway, the plan is to go up to Maxies cliff and sit up there to attract the vampires. We need to it to look like you two are a couple that's decided to go up there."

Vampires hung around there? Well I'd never heard of that; I knew that in high school a few people used to go up to Maxies cliff for privacy but that was about it. But if this was where he wanted us to go, I couldn't exactly argue. I mean I hadn't even known Vampires existed to a few weeks ago. The couple thing kind of had me though, what on earth where we supposed to do with that? They didn't expect us to act romantic, did they? Sure, Andy was awesome, but he was my friend. It was just going to be awkward....

From the look on all their faces that was precisely what they expected us to do.

******************

I watched out my window as the trees led us along the bumpy path up to Maxies Cliff that formed an integral part of tonight's hunting plan.

As Andy was being the bait, he was the driver tonight. Surprisingly Andy was a lot gentler driver than Joe. As the other part of the bait, I sat beside him in the passenger seat. I turned to see Pete, Patrick and Joe squished into the back.

When we reached a small clearing about three quarters of the way up the cliff, we dropped the other three guys off half-way up the hill. I felt a little concerned, I felt a little irresponsible leaving them in that spot. If we were trying to attract Vampires, what else was lurking around there?

 _Pete's with them,_  I reminded myself,  _this is all part of the plan. They know what they're doing, they'll be fine. Calm down._

Andy pulled the car up at the edge of a cliff face, you could see an entire view of the city from it. The lights blinked and flashed, if we weren't being 'Vampire bait' I would have probably been a lot more impressed by it.

Andy and I sat in awkward silence for a few moments. Before Andy asked, "Now what?"

I shrugged. I felt like an idiot, I was hopeless at this romantic stuff. Why I had to be involved with this part of the plan, I would never know.  _Because you're the only girl,_  I told myself.  _so of course, anything romantic should involve you._

"Are we supposed to kiss or something?" I whispered.

"Pretend to...." Andy blushed. "I guess?"

I nodded, feeling nervous. This was totally up there with being nerve-racking, even more than vampire hunting itself.

Andy pushed part of my hair aside and taking the que I leaned towards him and he leaned towards me. Were we going to do this?

 _A bit further..._ I thought, _this needs to look realistic..._

Then there was a loud growling noise, I quickly pulled away from him, my attention going to the cars window, there were three vampires on the car's bonnet snarling at us. Without thinking I let out a loud scream. I'd thought last night’s blood suckers were bad, these ones were worse. Or maybe it was just because I was staring them straight in the face?

There was a female with crazy spiked hair, a male with long brown hair and a third guy with shorter hair. They were dressed kind of more Gothic punk looking than last night’s crew. No matter how more vampire like they were dressed it was more terrifying being in the car than it had been the night before.

The three Vampires jumped off the hood of the car.

I flinched as the long-haired Vampire lurked around my side of the car and seamlessly punched its way through the window. Glass flew before my eyes, leaving small cuts on my skin, that were most likely bleeding, which wasn't what I needed right now. Surely one of the guys was going to come in a second. I hoped they hadn't been intercepted on their way up the hill.  _Come on Pete, Patrick and Joe? Where were they!_

The hand reached its way into the window towards me. He aimed for my neck area, and I felt Andy pull me back towards him. I'd thought that by now maybe he'd have grabbed his stake out but by the way he was staring down the monster, that clearly wasn't part of his plan tonight.

My prayers were answered when I saw a fizzle of lights and a web seemed to magically appear from it, encasing the creature. I watched as it caused him to fall into the car with a loud thud. With the vampire out the way, I could see Joe inspecting his gun. The blonde vampire turned his attention to him, he readied it. The vampire leered closer.  _Come on Joe, just shoot!_  I thought my eyes scanning in the blackness around us,  _oh god, where were Patrick and Pete?_

Suddenly, I heard something whoosh across the top of the car like an eagle. It jumped on top of the blonde pushing them down. I looked out the side, it was Pete!

He punched and kicked at her, until she was motionless. Then he turned and looked around at the rest of us. His frown was burrowed, he was mad.

"Seriously guys? You call yourself hunters? That was an easy one." He snarled at us.

I groaned,  _Shit, what crappy mood was he in tonight?_

I spotted Patrick who was standing nearby, his gun was still smoking, he blinked at him. There was a vampire lying at his feet, clearly he'd been the one to shoot them down.

"Easy for you to say..." I heard Joe mutter beside me.

"Fine then Pete, next time you be the bait." Andy yelled back at him.

"You know that wouldn't work." Pete crossed his arms across his chest, and snarled, "See you back at home."

The four of us watched as he ran towards the city and jumped from the cliff in spectacular fashion. I let out a small gasp, I wasn't expecting him to do that, but the guys didn't look too worried, so I composed myself.

"What's his problem?" I sighed, wiggling my way to the back of the passenger seat. I knew Pete could be awful sometimes but this was pushing it.

"He's probably just pissed because he thinks the Dandies found our hide-out." Andy shrugged from beside me.

Patrick nodded, peeking in the window, "Don't let him get to you when he starts acting this way. He just wants to protect us."

"By making us bait?" Andy raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't say it made sense..." Patrick blushed.

We were silent for moment before Joe broke it, "Could someone maybe unlock the doors? I'm not feeling all that safe out here, there could be more of them."

"Oh."

I watched as Andy reached to press the unlock button on the door. There was a loud click and Patrick and Joe could open the back doors to the car. The guys quickly jumped in and we drove off.

As we drove away from the cliff, I couldn't help but be worried for Pete, I mean I'd just watched him plunge off a mountain. But the guys didn't seem too worried about him, so I decided to try not to worry myself either.

****************************

When we eventually arrived back at the warehouse, Pete stood at the kitchen bench and was clutching a note. It looked a little bit like a poster really.

"What's that?" Joe asked, sneaking around him to try and look.

Pete shrugged, putting the piece of paper behind his back, "Dandies are supposed to be planning an attack tomorrow night in town square. Do we want to go?"

Patrick stared at him for a moment. He looked like he mouthed something to Pete. But I'm terrible at lip reading so I couldn't work it out.

"Sounds alright to me," Andy nodded.

"Me too." I added, not sure if I was supposed to add my opinion, heck last time I'd come to face to face with the Dandies I'd almost got myself killed so if anyone was against going it would most likely be me.

Joe nodded as well, and Pete turned his attention away from Patrick. I didn't see him agree, but Pete clapped his hands anyway.

"That settles it then, tomorrow night, we go against the Dandies."

I shivered, I couldn't help but feel that tomorrow was going to be my toughest night as a hunter yet.

 


	6. This Ain't A Scene It's An Arms Race

Patrick, Joe and I had worked for the rest of the night and early into the morning on fixing the car up so that the windows were replaced and the scuff marks from where the Vampires had jumped on the car were gone. We'd done some more training, before we'd left for the night as the Dandies weren't supposed to be around till around midnight. Amazingly it seemed the guys finally trusted me to be able to use garlic bombs without harming Pete in the process. Patrick had given me some to have in my pocket for emergencies.

Pete had a tip off last night, that the Dandies were going to be in the centre of town tonight. So, that was our destination. I was surprised that he'd suggested going there considering we'd been pretty much trying to avoid the Dandies ever since I'd joined them particularly when we thought they'd found us and in turn, me.

About an hour before midnight, I found myself sitting in the back of the car between Andy and Patrick. Joe was back to being the driver again tonight and Pete was in the passenger’s seat. I guess you had preference on those seats when you were bait.

We drove into the middle of town. From a distance, I could see a row of dandies, lined up along the wall. The walked along in a V-formation, with a guy with dark black hair and a bowler hat leading them. I stared, he looked like the guy I'd seen the night I'd been attacked at the coffee house and the one that had been hanging around the warehouse with William.

"That's Brendon the guy on the left of William" Patrick whispered, answering my question, "I don't really know who anyone else there is though."

It seemed I was correct; the black-haired guy was in fact Brendon. I remembered that Pete kept mentioning him. I thought of that night, his dead eyes had bored into me as he told me to look behind me. I shrugged the thought of him off, I didn't want to remember that night right now. l hoped things wouldn't end up like that again. I knew a lot more now and wasn’t going to crazily yell at them to stop hurting someone.

I watched as the formation came to an abrupt stop, William dropped a glove to the ground and all hell broke loose. The formation quickly dispersed and before any of us could react the group went wild, attacking anyone that they could find. I shivered, this was exactly what we working to stop.

I turned my attention to Patrick who was looking out the window, shaking his head, he seemed to be a little afraid. I truly hoped that the face he was making was just a regular thing, but I had an off feeling that it wasn't. A fight against the Dandies clearly wasn't going to be a walk in the park.

The car came to a stop and we exited, I followed behind Andy as we moved to stand around it. Pete stood at the front and the rest of us stood behind him. One of the Dandies stood directly in front of us, a pale man dressed in an office workers uniform, lay lifeless before him on the ground. I was tempted to run forwards and try and help. But I thought about what had they done to him, god I hoped they hadn't killed him. I took a deep breath; I didn’t want to think about that.

I heard Pete snarl at them and before our eyes a group of Dandies suddenly appeared around the Dandy that stood before us. They had clearly noticed that we were a threat to one of their members. Their body language made it obvious as they snarled and moved in circles in front of him, as if protecting him.

Pete removed his Jacket, discarding it on the ground and raised his fists at them. I watched in awe as the crowd of Dandies plan seemed to change entirely as they shuffled back away from him with each step that Pete took. It seemed what Andy had told me at some point during my training was right, the Dandies were afraid of him. I wondered why though, I had a bigger fear of the Dandies than Pete. But I suppose it's just a matter of perspective.

I looked around, I could see William sitting on top of a parked white sedan, drinking tea, he looked rather proud of what was happening, as if this was all just one big show to him. It made me sick, watching him spin his pinkie finger around the cup just as I had watched him do every night that I'd served him in the coffee house.

I shook my head, I couldn't stand here watching him all day, I needed to help the guys out. I looked around me, noticing that Patrick, Joe and Andy had now all disappeared, I stood alone at the car, I was surprised no one had attacked me yet. Without the rest of the guys, I was practically a sitting duck.

So, where were they?

Pete was now battling it out with the group of Dandies, that he'd just been intimidating. They looked quite strong, but he looked to be winning. I found Joe next, he was over to the right of Pete on the footpath. I watched as the vampires knocked the gun out of his hands. I panicked but it was for no reason, Joe resulted to using fist power and he was awesome at it. It seemed that Pete wasn't the only one who could handle hand to hand combat after all. If we weren't in a life or death situation I probably would've joked to him about it.

I spotted Andy afterwards and watched as he sliced straight through a whole group of Dandies. I was impressed, I mean he'd been good in training and the first night I went hunting but this was awesome. Occasionally green sparks would shoot up the sword, illuminating the street, it certainly added to the effect of awesomeness. The only person I couldn't find was Patrick, he had to be around here somewhere surely.

In my search, I watched as Brendon led a newly formed formation of Dandies in an unusual almost perfectly choreographed routine. They all reached their hands out in front of them beckoning a group of girls towards them. The girls seemed to follow their hand movements, as they walked straight with their head tilted slightly backwards. They almost looked like zombies. If I didn't know the males were Vampires I would've found it beautiful. My mind totally changed when the group made the girls tilt their necks to the side and hissed at them. They were probably going to bite them, I shivered and looked away, I wanted to help them but there wasn't much I could do about it without getting hurt in the process. There was only one of me, and there was at least six of them. I was beginning to feel useless, was there anything here I could do around here without getting myself severely hurt?

I finally saw Patrick but that didn't help me much, in fact it made me feel worse. He was at the edge of an alleyway getting attacked by a bunch of girls. I found myself in the same position, I wanted to go and help him but I could see a lot Dandies in my path so I knew if I risked trying to get over there. I had a high chance of getting attacked before I even got over there. I hoped Pete or Joe or Andy would be able to get over there and help him soon.

As if proving my point, I felt something grab me by the legs and knock me from my feet. I landed on my stomach with a thud on the ground. I clearly had been paying too much attention to the guys and hadn't been looking out for myself. I quickly pulled myself back up, my eyes meeting a tall, masculine Dandy. He smiled at me, before pulling his fist up at me and swinging it towards me. I ducked and weaved around each of his strikes.

He clearly noticed he wasn't going to get anywhere so he bared his fangs at me, causing me to step backwards in surprise, I hadn't been expecting him to try that. He lent forwards and tried aiming for my throat.

I tried kneeing him in the stomach causing his head to rear up and I felt his fangs slice into my right cheek. I let out a small shriek of pain, as I began to feel the blood run down my face. He snarled again, heading for my neck once again. I was more prepared this time and I swished my knife through the air making cuts through him, just as his teeth were skimming my neck. I pushed him backwards, knowing I'd made him weak, I put my foot on his stomach and brought my arms high into the air and staked him in the chest.

His eyes closed, and I couldn't help but be proud of myself, I'd taken down a vampire without the guys help.

I put my hand to my face and my neck respectively, finding that both hands came back with a stain of blood, I couldn't possibly let either of those go on much longer. I grabbed a pair of Band-Aids from my pocket to cover my cuts. I didn't feel like drawing a crowd of hungry vampires from being careless over my wounds.

When it was all patched up, I picked myself up again but paused when I saw Brendon standing only meters away sniffing the air, I had to get away. He knew I was here, he could probably smell my blood from my cut. I ran in the opposite direction, only pausing when I heard police sirens. I smiled, the police were finally going to get involved with this after all.

I turned around, expecting to see guns blazing and vampires falling to the ground. I was wrong though, Pete was pressed up against a car with two officers placing handcuffs around his wrists. I watched in confused horror as they herded him inside the police car. What was going on? Where were the rest of the guys?

I found Joe knocked out on the ground, the officers standing around him, one pulling out handcuffs. Andy and Patrick on the other hand were held up against two separate police cars, Patrick was still standing but he looked a little pale, even for him. I hoped he was okay as well.

I cast my eye behind them to a small crowd of police-officers, they were all laughing with a man in a bowler hat. I froze, it was William. How could he be friends with them? They had the wrong people! Beckett was the villain not the guys! I hadn't expected this! What on earth was I going to do?

I looked around, one of the Dandies was staring at me. He had dark curly hair that peeked out from under his bowler hat. Our eyes locked and he blinked before he turned away, and continued to look around as if he hadn't even seen me.

I took a deep breath, I was shocked that he hadn't come running for me, fangs blazing. I was safe. Or so I thought, I saw another Dandy look at him before following where he'd been looking, at me. He grinned and made a dash towards the police. I'd been spotted.

_Run_ , was my first reaction. I had to get out of here before they locked me up too.

I was confused at what I could do and whether I could outrun these guys but I took the nearest exit to another alleyway. Perhaps it would lead to another street and I could escape. And then where would I go? I took a deep breath, I was thinking too far ahead, I'd cross that bridge when I got to it.

It was dark, until about half way up and likely to be crawling with vampires, but I needed to get out of here. I broke into a run, heading straight and not looking back. I didn't want to find out if the police or one of the Dandies was behind me.

I could see lights at the end of the corridor, yes, it looked like another street! I was almost there!

_Bang!_

I felt my body clash with something cold. I blinked, I looked in front of me to find I'd bumped into someone. It was another girl, even in the darkness I could see she had bright yellow and orange flame like hair and was slightly shorter than me.

She smiled at me, exposing fangs. I stared as I backed away from her. She was a vampire.

I knew exactly what was going to come next. She was probably going to bite me and I had no backup. Sure, I'd just handled that last Vampire on my own, but I was sure that had been a fluke.

I needed to run, but somehow I couldn't bring myself to. I knew she would be able to block me, I'd lingered too long, I shouldn't have come down here. My heart thundered in my chest.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry if I scared you."

I glared at her, she sounded so.... normal. Nothing like the vicious remarks I usually got from Pete or any of the Dandies. She looked me up and down, she frowned at me.

"You're a hunter, aren't you?" She spoke, staring at the sword I had in my hand.

I nodded, “Yeah, what’s it to you?”

"No reason, you don't need to be afraid of me. I'm not like those guys you know. The name's Hayley."

She extended her hand out to me, I wasn't quite sure whether I should take it. I stared at it for a few moments. I considered it, so far this girl hadn't tried to bite me...and for some reason I believed her.

"I’m Cassie." I replied, reaching to take her hand.

As our hands touched, I flinched a cool shiver running down my back, Hayley shifted oddly as well. She stared at me for a second as if confused and then smiled back. She then moved her attention past me, she was looking back down the street.

"Your friends are in a bit of a bind I see." She spoke, "I think they're going to take them down to the station. A bit of girl power and we should be able to bust them out, I think."

I stared at her, for starters I was impressed she could see that far down the alleyway. Well anything was possible; she was a vampire after all. Which brought me to my second reason, she was a vampire and I'd only met her for about two seconds. It seemed too good to be true that she was already volunteering to help me get the guys back. Thirdly, how had she even known that I was friends with them? She had to have been watching us or something, which comforted and worried me at the same time.

I had no clue what to say back to her, what if she turned around and attacked me straight afterwards? I took a deep breath. I was desperate, if this was the only way to get the guys back, then I had to take my chances. Besides, I had a good feeling about her, she did indeed seem different to the vampires I'd just been fighting and she did seem a hell of a lot nicer than Pete.

"Not what you were expecting me to say, huh?" She smiled, extending her arm to me, "Come on Cassie, we better get going. We haven't got much time."

 


	7. The Take Over The Breaks Over

About half an hour later, I found myself standing at the front of the Chicago police station with Hayley by my side.

When we'd left the centre of town, she'd taken me back to her place. I was surprised to find that it was just an ordinary house in the middle of a normal suburban Chicago street. If I'd known no better, I wouldn't have even expected a Vampire to live there, even in the darkness I could see a rose garden lined the front of the house. It just seemed so...normal. Especially compared to the warehouse where we lived. 

Inside, she'd led me to a massive walk in wardrobe filled with long rows of gorgeous clothes and shoes. I'd never seen so many in all my life outside of a shop. I guess Vampires could have what they wanted. It took a few moments of searching but she pulled out a pale blue dress from the left rack and handed it to me along with a small black satchel bag which she told me to put my other clothes in. She then grabbed something else from the coat hanger for herself and promptly left the room. Therefore, leaving me to get changed into the dress. As I pulled my black skinny jeans off I realized that I still had the bag of garlic bombs stuffed in my pocket, so I quickly stashed them into the bag also along with my clothes.

With my new clothes on, I glared into the mirror. The pale blue dress seemed to accentuate the auburn of my hair. I'd become so much paler these past few weeks, I guess living mainly in darkness will do that to you. I was almost unrecognisable. It had been a while since I'd had a nice dress on.  

When Hayley returned, she wore a simple, yet elegant black dress and had pinned her hair up.

Apparently, she wasn't done with me either. Then she let me into the bathroom and had somehow managed to tame my hair into a messy bun and did my make-up at record speed. She'd managed to cover up the cut where the vampires’ fangs had scrapped my face with an extremely pale foundation. When I'd asked her what it was all for she'd just shaken her head and kept going.

She was being so damn mysterious and I wasn't quite sure whether I liked it. I had no idea why I was even trusting her. She was a vampire after all. There was something about her though that made me trust her, a gut feeling that I had. 

"You ready?" She'd smiled a hint of worry in her eyes as she squeezed my shoulder. Was she nervous too?

_Well I would be ready, if you'd tell me what was going on._  I felt like yelling at her. But I bit my tongue. I had to trust that she knew what we were doing. It appeared I was going to be winging it in this situation as she'd told me next to nothing of what she had planned. I'd done a good job of winging it on tests in high school. So why not now?

I'd nodded, putting on a smile, and shrugged, "Ready as I'll ever be."

"It's okay, we're going to be just fine." She'd nodded. Her voice had been slightly nervous though, I couldn't help but wonder if she was saying it for herself as well. 

Back in the present I turned away from her and focused on the Police station lights. I tried to push down the nerves in my stomach, as I went to take my first step up the staircase that lead inside. Instead she pulled me backwards. I frowned at her, completely confused. 

"Oh, I almost forgot! You'll need these." 

She quickly began to rummage through her purse before pulling a plastic container out of it, and she handed it to me. I opened it up and I stared at its contents. It was white and long and looked like a set of false teeth, I looked closer and realised that the front side teeth were elongated and heavily pointed. I couldn't believe it, they were Vampire fangs. I blinked at her. Why on earth would plastic vampire fangs be helpful?

"Trust me, you'll need them."

I was feeling a little overwhelmed, but I reminded myself of my mission, I had to rescue the guys no matter what. They'd saved my life once upon a time so it was my turn to return the favour. I had to do whatever it took to do so. Following behind, I carefully slid the plastic fangs into position. I felt kind of silly wearing them but Hayley had insisted and they must mean something.

I followed her up the staircase and through the sliding doors into the police station.

I found myself in a large room, there were couches lined up on both sides of the room. Missing person’s posters lined the walls, I wondered how many of them were running around town as Vampires, I shivered at the thought of that one.

I caught my refection in a mirror that was in between the posters, I noted that Hayley had clearly put some extra make-up under my eyes to make them look darker and she'd used a pale foundation, crazily enough it looked real. I realized what she'd tried to do. I looked like a Vampire. I could easily pass for one of them. Which I found kind of awesome and scary at the same time.

Why did I need to look like a Vampire though? What exactly did she plan for us to do.

I followed behind her as she walked gracefully up to the counter at the end of the room. There sat a man in a dark blue police officer uniform, he was probably in his late twenties, early thirties. The man looked up from his desk, and stared at us. Hayley battered her eyelids at him and flashed her fangs at him. I tried to copy her actions, but I was sure I had it all wrong because the police man was staring solely at her.

"I need a bit of assistance with something, I was wondering if you could help us." She smiled as she ran her hand across the desk. 

The police officer smiled at us both, exposing fangs. 

Oh, my god. How on earth was he a police officer? He was a vampire for crying out loud! They were supposed to be the ones protecting us. I thought about it, perhaps that was why William had been acting so chummy with them all earlier. Was it possible that he was controlling them all somehow? I shivered at the thought.

"William said you had some...undesirables for us to collect?" Hayley began.

I froze,  _William?_  Surely Hayley didn't mean William as in the same one that was trying to find me and had got us all into this crazy mess. I'd probably just heard the name wrong, or surely there was loads of people in Chicago with that name and probably loads of Vampires.

"The hunters?"

Hayley nodded.

"Master William sent you here to get them?"

Hayley nodded again. I tried to keep a poker face, I'd heard right. Master William had to be the same guy. The way Pete went on and the way that the Dandies dressed I had this feeling he'd make the dandies call him Master William. I really hoped she was lying and that she wasn't working for him, if she was I was in trouble. I'd walked straight into their trap. What an idiot I was for trusting her.

I was left bewildered as she produced a piece of paper, she passed it across the desk to him. I gulped, it really hadn't been right to trust her, she had a piece of paper that was most likely from William. She was probably a Dandies. There was no way, I was trusting my 'good feelings' about people ever again.

"See it says it all here"

I looked around the room for an escape route. A door, a hallway, anything. Surely there was a way I could slip out of here without Hayley noticing.

The guy read it and nodded, "Okay, come on through."

I screamed internally, darn it, I'd missed my chance of escape, so like an obedient dog I followed Hayley as we walked along behind him. She looked proud of herself. I desperately wanted to ask her what the note was all about and whether she had anything to do with a certain someone, but it wasn't safe. What if she was being legitimate, and that she really was trying to help me? Then I could totally blow our cover. Ugh, this was too confusing.

We stopped at a cell, I could see straight through the bars. Pete had his head slumped and was tied to a chair in the far corner of the room. The other three guys lay lifeless around him, obviously, they'd been knocked out. They all looked kind of defeated, I wonder what had happened since I'd watched them get shoved into the police cars. Well at least we'd found them, but in this state, I didn't have a clue how I'd be able to get them out. Especially if my suspicions proved correct and Hayley was really working for William.

The police officer pulled a set of keys from his pocket, and seemingly picked one at random and pushed one into the lock. I watched as he spun the key and then sighed, before picking out another. I looked around the empty corridor, the police station was surprisingly silent tonight. I heard a slight click and turned my attention back to the officer, suddenly, he was falling to the ground. I gasped.

I looked to Hayley who stood behind him, her fist was still clenched in front of her. I gasped, she'd knocked him out! She lowered her arm and simply stepped over him. I stared at her, I hadn't seen that one coming, I was starting to believe again that she was truly trying to help me. 

"Come on, remember, we don't have long." She ordered, spinning the key through the remainder of the lock. I realized I was gawking at her.

She slowly pushed the door open and we raced inside. It suddenly occurred to me that it was all well and good that we'd made it in here, but how on earth were we going to get back out? It was going to be difficult to get the guys out and surely the police officer wasn't the only one here, I was sure there would be a hoard of Dandies here any second.

Hayley clearly had an idea of what to do. I watched in silence as she pulled out a pocket knife from her handbag. She moved in towards Pete and slashed it through the ropes that encased him. She pushed his hair out of the way and tilted his head back, he didn't react, she pulled his gums up revealing his teeth, she then pulled at his eyelids, "Hmmm, he's low on blood. He's not even reacting to me. We'll have a bit of trouble getting out of here if we don't give him some." She looked at me, her faced contorted with worry.

I stared at her before suddenly realizing what she meant, there was only one person with blood that could help him. I freaked out a little, last time I'd "donated" blood to a Vampire, I'd passed out. She might be able to get Pete better but how would she get me out of here, I'd only got out last time after I'd been bitten because of Patrick.

"Mine?" I quivered.

"Don't panic, he'll only need a tiny bit, just enough that we can get him to walk at least, then his healing might start to kick back in at least." Hayley smiled, reassuringly.

I thought this through, if it was only a little bit, and it was going to help Pete, it couldn't be too bad, could it?

"Okay." I stepped forward.

She pulled a long yet small item from her pocket, she made me hold my finger out and pushed the object into my skin, it felt like a small prick and when she moved her hand away I watched as a small dot of blood quickly formed on the surface.

I stuck my pinkie finger in his mouth. I felt something cold and wet lick at my finger and I jumped. This was so weird, but Hayley had made it clear it was necessary if we wanted him out of here.

"That should be enough."

I retracted my hand and she quickly put a band-aid over my finger, I noticed she was trying to avoid looking at the blood. Her eyes looked to be tinted red slightly. I wondered how much control it required to do even that.

"Okay, now you take him." She said putting his arm around my shoulder. I pulled him up, supporting all his weight. I was thankful that he wasn't too heavy. I didn't seem to be wiped out like last time I'd donated blood to a vampire. I guess Hayley was right, it had only been a little bit. 

I looked over to Hayley just in time to watch her pick Patrick, Joe and Andy from the floor with ease and slung them over her shoulder.

"Cassie?" Pete whispered, turning his head towards me.

"Yeah, it's me." I smiled, "Just take a few steps for me."

He nodded weakly and I tried my best match his slow, hesitant steps. He was weak, what had they done to him?

Slowly I followed Hayley out into the main corridor, suddenly she stopped, and appeared to be staring at something at the exit of the corridor. I followed her gaze, down to a group of eight or so police officers. I'd been right about there being backups. Clearly, they'd noticed what we'd done. I shivered as I noticed that each of them bared fangs.  _More vampire's in the police force? Was it requirement now or something?_

They seemed to nod at one another, before running at high-speeds towards us.

"Hayley..." I whined.

She didn't reply she just shuffled backwards, keeping her gaze on them. What was she doing? Was she just going to stand there? We'd made it this far, surely that wouldn't be her plan.

Well, I wasn't going to follow it. I quickly pulled open my bag, my hand finding a packet of round objects, I still had some of the garlic bombs Patrick had given me. Yes, that would work. I quickly pulled them out, letting them roll around in my fists for a few moments. Okay, remain calm you can do this. I told myself as the police officers ran towards us. I thought about how I had tricked Pete in training, I just needed to wait for the right moment.

The police officers weren't far from us now, when I spotted our chance. I flung them out in front of me in all directions, silently hoping that none of them hit Hayley or Pete because I knew I would be in trouble if they did.

As the garlic bombs hit them the Vampires began to squeal in pain, they all seemed to slow down instantly before falling on one another like dominoes. It felt kind of bad about doing it, seeing how much pain they were all in but wow, that stuff was good. No wonder Pete was afraid of them, they could do a lot of damage.

"Ugh, that stuff stinks." Hayley muttered, she didn't look too annoyed though. "But good choice, lucky you had them."

_Yeah, lucky Patrick gave them to me at the last minute or we would've had no chance,_  I thought to myself. I wasn't so sure Hayley had a plan to get us out of here. 

Once the stuff had settled, Hayley made a leap over them, and I stepped over the Vampires that were screaming in pain. I was careful not to let Pete's skin touch theirs, I didn't think we needed to deal with him being hurt by that as well.

I spotted the door, and we raced towards it. I could hear a commotion coming from behind us and I didn't dare look. We ran through a bunch of back streets, when finally, we ended back up in the town square.

Our black bat car was still waiting in the middle of the intersection. This was where this mess had all started, I was surprised to find that other than our car the streets surrounding were uncomfortably empty, someone had certainly cleaned up after the Dandies.

I put my hand on the door, and was amazed to find that it opened automatically. Hayley pulled Joe, Patrick and Andy from her shoulders and pushed them along into the back of the car. She buckled them up carefully.

Pete was a bit disorientated still, but could walk on his own now, so I simply opened the door for him and he took a seat. I managed to find the car keys hidden under the font driver’s seat, where we'd agreed to put them in case of this kind of emergency.

Next, I spun around to thank Hayley, but where she had been standing only a few seconds before was now empty. I looked around the whole square for her but she was gone.

I sighed, she was so mysterious. I had so many questions about her and now she'd left. Well I hadn't been expecting that after all she'd done for us.

"Are you coming or what?" I heard a voice call. I spun back around, Pete was looking at me from the front seat.

"Yeah," I smiled, holding up the car keys, "I just had to get these."

I jumped in the front seat, I had a driver’s licence, but I hadn't really driven much since I'd got it. So, this could get interesting.

I stared at all the parts of the car, there was only two pedals, and the gear stick was labelled with letters not numbers. Meaning thankfully, it was an automatic, so I just started the engine and chucked the car into 'd' for drive and was about to put my foot to the accelerator when a voice stopped me.

"Did you get turned?", I followed the voice, finding that Pete was staring at me, he looked at my face and then at my bandaged finger,

"Huh?" I looked quickly into the mirror. Oh, I hadn't taken out the fangs or made any effort to remove the make-up Hayley had given me, so that I'd make a convincing vampire. Well it seemed to have worked, I even had Pete fooled, he'd thought I'd become a vampire in the fight. I quickly pulled them off, to prove that they were fake.

"Phew." He sighed, looking quite weak. "How'd you manage to look like that anyway?"

"Uh...a friend." I wasn't quite ready to tell him about Hayley just yet. He might get mad at me for trusting a random vampire like that. Looking back now, it probably was stupid, but it had all worked out in the long run, I had the guys back and at the end of the day that was all that mattered. Except the fact that Hayley could have been working for William, but I tried to push that away again, I couldn't keep thinking that.

"And your finger?"

"Saving you." I sighed, "You needed blood."

"What, are you crazy!?" He yelled at me, "I could've seriously hurt you...."

I bit back, shrugged my shoulders and turned my face back to the wheel, "Well if you wanted to stay in that Dandy controlled jail cell then that's fine by me. There was no getting you out otherwise, I'm not that strong..."

"Well how'd you get the other guys out?" He pointed to the back seat.

"Uh..." I'd already decided I wasn't telling him about Hayley, I looked to the back seat hopelessly. The guys were all starting to wake up. I surveyed them, Patrick had all bite marks all up his arms. Joe had his arm slashed like my face and except for looking a little pale, Andy was pretty much fine obviously just knocked out by whatever the police officers had done to them.

Pete sighed, "Never mind..."

I focused on driving at that point and Pete and I remained in uncomfortable silence. We were halfway up the drive to the warehouse when I head movement from the back seat. One glance in the rear-view mirror told me all three of them were awake now. 

"Ugh, what happened..." Joe grumbled, staring at me.

"We got caught." Pete looked around at us all, before giving a quick explanation of what had happened and how I had saved them. "The Dandies are getting more powerful." He muttered at the end. 

No one dared to argue with him, because it was exactly what we all thought. The Dandies were getting stronger and there was nothing we could do about it.

 


	8. Sugar We're Going Down

I ran down the corridor, my heart thundering in my chest. My throat constricts and I feel like I'm struggling for air, but I must keep running. I can't let him catch me. I see a doorway coming up on the right, it could be my only chance of escape and I'm willing to take it. I take a sharp right into a dark room, not quite what I was hoping for, but it will do. Once inside I quickly spin around, take a hold of the door handle and push on it so that the door will slam shut. But it doesn't.

It stops only a few meters before being fully closed, my eyes fall to the ground, and I can faintly see a leather shoe keeping it open.

I stop breathing for a moment, no way, this couldn't be happening. Surely the universe could give me a break for just a second.

The door slowly creeps open and I can see a silhouette appear in the doorway. There's a small click and the room flickers into life. As the room illuminates, a face appears. Not just any face, someone I hoped I’d never see again. Bowler hat, dark eyes, fangs, could have meant it was any Dandy. It wasn't just any old Dandy, it was Beckett.

"Thought you could run, did you love?" He sniggered, a wide smile that exposed his fangs appeared as he pushed open the door.

I tried to speak but I was unable to. I wanted to scream, shout, anything. I needed to fight, yes that was it. I took a deep breath, raised my arms, clenching my hands into a tight fist, I went to push it forwards, when the sound of laughter stopped me. It seemed to be coming from behind. I froze in place, something seemed so familiar about all of this.

I spun around to find a girl with fiery orange hair, and a young man with a bowler hat and side fringe were standing behind me, it was Hayley and Brendon.

No way, I 'd thought Hayley was on our side. She couldn't be helping them. I took steps backwards in shock. I knew I shouldn't have trusted her, not for a second. I couldn't really say the same for Brendon though, the first time I'd met him he'd tricked me, we'd never been on the same side.

"No!" I screamed, as I continued to walk backwards.

I'd almost forgotten who I had behind me though, I soon felt something grab me by the shoulders. My stomach clenched in fear as I slowly turned, to meet the eyes of my captor, I had a feeling it would be Beckett but I wanted to be sure.

I found that it wasn't him, but a male with black hair that fell gently over his eyes, pointed fangs, he wasn't dressed like Brendon and Beckett, instead he wore a black leather jacket. Dread filled me, I knew exactly who this was, I couldn't quite believe it. Yet here he was leaning towards me fangs bared. No way, he couldn't, he wouldn't.

"Do it now, Peter." A voice, resonate of Beckett's laughed from behind me.

Pete leaned closer, I knew what was going to happen next, but I never could have guessed that it would. Seconds later I felt a sharp pain in my neck. I let out a loud shriek, he couldn't be doing this, we were supposed to be friends and-

I sat up straight hearing as the last of my scream erupted into the air. I looked around noticing that the moonlight glittered in the window, illuminating the living room, where I'd clearly fallen asleep, as I still had my training gear of black jeans and black jacket on. I pushed back my auburn hair, phew, it was only a dream.

"Cassie? Is everything alright?" A voice called from the kitchen as the door creaked open and three silhouettes appeared at the door. It was Patrick, Joe and Andy.

Andy raised an eyebrow, "One of those dreams again?"

I nodded.

I'd barely got any sleep the past few weeks. It seemed like every night I was waking up from terrifying nightmares about being chased by Dandies among other things. When they'd first started, it'd been fine, I hadn't been screaming at the end of them. Lately, it was starting to become a habit of mine having at least one of the guys racing to my side to check I was okay. I was starting to feel a lot like the boy who cried wolf. One day it would be real, and there was nobody who would be able to save me. 

Plus, it didn't help that I had a few things on my mind. Namely, that mysterious vampire named Hayley. She had helped in breaking the guys out of prison after they'd been caught by a group of police officers. I hadn't decided whether she was a friend or a foe, I mean she'd had a signed letter from William himself! I wondered whether she really was a Dandy? At least we'd kind of won by escaping, but it seemed like the police were now on their side and they were Vampires. The whole town was going to hell, and all of us knew it.

Yet, I hadn't told the guys about Hayley, Pete hadn't mentioned her or asked any questions about who had helped me that night. I wondered if he had even seen her, or was she something that my imagination had just cooked up. Maybe not but the main problem was, she'd disappeared just as we'd escaped. So, I couldn’t ask her any questions about her motives, I mean why would a random vampire want to help us?

Then there was the lingering problem that we thought William and Brendon had discovered the location of the warehouse. Strangely though, no one had turned up since. Okay, I mean we'd turned up on them, by going into the town to fight them but thankfully we hadn't seen them around here. I didn't know whether to be happy or concerned about that one. Just in case, we'd tried to keep a low profile. So, we hadn't been hunting since, but the boys had been trying to keep me busy with new training exercises so hunting certainly wasn't something we'd forgotten, we were just giving the actual, real stuff a break for a while. At least until we had indication of what Beckett and the other Dandies were planning.

Things were sure getting complicated.

"Dandies? Pete?" Joe questioned.

"Both," I sighed, Joe's question was starting to become all too familiar. Now that they were beginning to happen almost every night, it was concerning everyone. I kept trying to tell them it was just me, but the guys didn't seem to quite believe it. Patrick had even been trying to write notes on it, he said it might help us find a pattern. I didn't quite see how my dreams could show anything, but I couldn't argue, I had to believe they were doing the right thing.

The three guys looked amongst one another, their faces creased with concern. It was starting to worry me a little.

"Speaking of, where's Pete?" I asked silently, realizing he was the only one who wasn't in the room. It also kind of helped that I wanted to change the subject a little.

"Hunting." The three guys quickly replied at me.

"Oh-" Gosh, I was an idiot, Pete had to get blood somehow. I shivered, wondering how exactly he hunted, I had a feeling it was something better left unsaid.

Suddenly there was a loud snarling noise, shaking me out of my embarrassment. I heard someone yell something, then there was a loud thud, that cause the entire warehouse to tremble, and I had a sinking feeling that it wasn't an earthquake.

I shivered, what on earth was that noise? Okay, it hadn't been any of us in here. All the guys were perfectly fine and considering there shouldn't be any other people around for at least a kilometre, this was suspicious. They'd clearly heard and felt it as well, they were looking around the room as if something was about to jump out at us at any moment.

"What was that?"

The warehouse shook again, then there was what sounded like a growl of pain, I thought it sounded suspiciously like Pete. But I didn't want to think of that being it. Pete was out hunting, he was probably miles from here by now. But, out here in the forest so were we. Those kinds of noises weren't normal.

"I'm going to find out what it is." Patrick announced,

"Not without us." Joe added.

Andy and I both nodded.

"Okay? Considering there's four of us, how about we split up." Andy suggested, who looked rather calm considering, "Patrick and Cassie you two can take the corridor and Joe and I will check outside."

That sounded good to me, that way none of us were alone and we could check both inside and outside to make sure that no one had gotten in. I clearly, wasn't the only one who thought it was reasonable because everyone soon nodded.

I stretched my arms in the air, I really didn't feel like moving, but I had to. I dragged myself from off the sofa. Before moving over to Patrick who had just grabbed a small device from of the table. Joe and Andy left the room, and raced for the front door. Meanwhile, I followed Patrick over to the hallway, so we could check the inside of the warehouse.

Patrick went to flick the light switch, he tried several times but it failed to come on. He shrugged, and looked back at me, as if perhaps I had answer. But I didn't. Though I wondered if someone had flicked off the power or at least the lights, we probably hadn't realized as we hadn't had any on in the kitchen. From memory, we'd only had candles and lanterns on in there. I was beginning to have a bad feeling about all of this.

We kept walking, the corridor was so dark. I couldn't see much further than Patrick's hand, hesitantly I grabbed it. It was warm, I had to know he was there, I felt him squeeze my hand almost reassuringly in return, he could clearly tell I was afraid. Honestly, I was, mainly because I couldn't work out what was happening, something felt odd about all of this, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

"Pete?" Patrick called as we walked, I was surprised, he seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me. That was comforting and terrifying at the same time, what if we were right and Pete was the one in trouble.

There was no response.

"Pete?"

A hissing noise echoed through the corridor. It sounded like it was coming from the door we were standing next to, which was odd because I knew for a fact, that was a spare room. Cautiously, Patrick pushed open the door and both of us peeked our heads inside. The outside light was still working. At first, I thought everything was normal, until I noticed that the window on the far side of the room was shattered and that there was smashed glass covering the carpet.

Even in the darkness we could see two silhouettes out there, they were about the same height, though one I thought looked like Pete. However, the other one wore a bowler hat. It was a Dandy.

Which meant they had found us.

Okay, so what on earth were we going to do now? Well priorities first, quite obviously if that was indeed Pete out there, we had to help him.

I went to take a step forward when I heard a loud groaning noise from behind me, and considering there was only one person behind me, this wasn't going to be good.

Fearfully, I spun around to find a Vampire in a bowler's hat had his arm around Patrick's neck. My heart beat quickened and my body trembled in fear. I wasn't ready to be in this situation at all. I stared for a moment, unable to do anything else.

Then it was like a switch came on in my brain. I went into my pockets trying to find my stash of garlic bombs, ugh I'd used them all up getting the guys out of the police station and I'd forgotten to ask for more. What else did I have? Surely a sword, a gun, anything? Nope they were probably in the training room, right where I'd left them. I was so unprepared for this, I should have at least grabbed something before we'd come along here.

Perhaps, if I made a dash back towards the training room, I could find something, but the Dandies were blocking my way and there was sure to be more than just him.

Seconds later I felt something hard and strong, crash into the back of my head, causing me to whither in pain as my vision grew blurry and I felt myself fall forward into Patrick.

"Shit." Was the only word I could manage before black spots filled my vision and everything went completely dark.

 


	9. Famous Last Words

Groggily, I woke up in what appeared to be a dark slated room. I clutched my head as a shooting pain struck through it. I winced as I looked around me. Everything was so dark in here. It reminded me of one of those dungeons you see in movies. The place was small and cold and I found myself wishing that I had a thicker jacker. I seemed to be alone. I ran my hand up the wall, feeling the grooves in between the grouting of the slate. I shivered at it's cool touch.

Where on earth was I? This certainly wasn't the warehouse or anywhere else that I recognised.

Then I remembered, like a light coming on in my brain. Where was Patrick? The last thing I could remember was that he'd been with me when we'd been ambushed. I closed my eyes, I hope he was okay.

I tried to pull myself up from the ground, but found that my body was weak. I felt a sharp pain in my neck, and raised my hand to it. Moments later I wish I hadn't when my hand came back slightly red. I stared for a moment, wishing that I had a mirror.

The Dandies, I had to have been captured by them. But what did they have me here for? Some glorified blood bag or worse...

I shivered at the thought of the worse. How long had I been here for? Days? Weeks? Months?

I looked down at my clothing, I wasn't in the clothes that I last remembered being in. Instead it was a dress, pale green in colour. It would probably match my eyes. It reminded me exactly of the ones that Hayley and I had worn to rescue the guys.

I frowned, I had to find a way out of here and quickly.

Dragging myself forward, I pawed against the wooden door. I reached as best as I could for the door handle and jiggled it a few times. It was no use it was locked. They were trying to keep me in after all.

Something whooshed straight past me and began to circle. Mocking laughter began to echo around the walls. I froze where I stood, looking all around me, I couldn't keep my eyes on it long enough to work out what is even was. I didn't like it though, I just wanted to scream stop but when I opened my mouth, I found that my throat was dry. No words came out.

The laughter continued as the black shadow continued to whoosh around me in the small area.

"Show yourself, seriously." I yelled angrily, my voice harsh and raspy, but at least it seemed to be working again.

A blur of a shadow breezed past, coming to a stop, only meters in front of me. The blur soon formed a man, and not just anyone. They wore a powder white bowler hat and gloves, with a jacket. A Dandy. Just what I'd hoped wasn't my captor. This guy had dark black hair and a slight side-fringe. I knew by the eager grin and manner that it was Brendon, and honestly, I had no wish to see him.

"Well, well the Princess is awake." Brendon laughed as he leaned against the slated wall, looking particularly amused by my appearance.

"Why am I here?" I demanded, staring him straight in the eyes. "And where's Patrick, Pete, Andy and Joe?"

"All in due time, my love." He smiled flashing his fangs. "...I can't spoil anything yet."

'My love' kind of made me want to puke. If he had a reason, and it ended up being good, boy would I like to hear it, I wasn't seeing how being here was going to end very well. Worst of all he hadn't even given a clue to where the rest of the guys might be, despite my asking. I had a million curse words that I felt like using on him, right now, but curse words weren't going to get me out of here.

I pulled on my dress angrily, "And what's with this ugly thing. I want my normal clothes back please."

Amusement flickered once again in Brendon's eyes, "You don't like it? We can find you another if you would like."

Ugh. I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. I tried to pull myself into a standing position so I could try and work on the door again. I figured it would be best to ignore him and at least give him something to laugh at.

It took me a few goes. I'd flick my eyes back to see Brendon simply watching me as I tried to stand up. Eventually when I did, he didn't say a word. Perhaps they weren't trying to keep me here after all.

Wobbling slightly, I walked towards the door and pulled the handle again. I bashed it in frustration.

Then I heard a click. I tried the door again and was surprised when it opened. I glanced back at Brendon, who didn't make a single move.

"I'm not stopping you, princess." He grinned.

I raised a suspicious eyebrow at him, but continued if I could just get out of this room then there would have to be a way out of here from that.

I took a step into the corridor expecting to be launched on by a group of Dandies. There wasn't though. Instead I found my senses being overpowered by the most amazing smell. My throat curled in anticipation. What was it?

"You can smell it, can't you?" A voice spoke.

I turned to face Brendon knowing well that he was the one who had just spoke.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "What do you mean?"

"We have a bit of a problem you see. We tried to prevent it from getting to this but someone came along and broke the hunters out of jail..." He had begun to pace around, "Did you somehow think we would didn't notice?"

"One could've hoped." I managed to mutter, before he could say anymore.

Brendon ignored me and continued, "Well, we did. Clearly our last warning wasn't enough. So, it appeared we needed to take more drastic actions...a bit more shall we say... _permanent._ "

"Permanent?" I repeated, the way his tone of voice had changed when he said it, frightened me.

"Why yes, what a beautiful Dandy you'll make." He smiled, lifting my cheek up as if examining me.

Oh, hell no, I was not agreeing to that. I was in no shape or form joining the Dandies, I was not going to let him bite me or however the hell you became a vampire. I'd kind of failed to ask the guys about it, I knew it took a lot more than a bite though from what Pete said. I really wished I'd asked someone so I could have at least thought of a way to get out of this stupid mess.

"And what makes you think that I'll do that?" I said back.

"Oh, you will see in time Princess. That things are for the best. I don't see why you would align yourself with those losers when you could be on the winning team."

"Your dreaming, besides Pete will kill you if you do."

"Ooh! I'm so scared of that precious little vampire hunting traitor," Brendon laughed, "He knows nothing about how great this life can be. Instead, he broods about all day trying to plot revenge against his own kind. Besides Pete doesn't have to know, we could just pretend it was an... accident."

"Pfft, I'm pretty sure Pete will have you pinned to the wall in seconds. In fact, he's probably on his way here right now."

Okay, I had no way of knowing that, but it was the best comeback I had, when my life was on the line like this. But surely someone would be looking for us, surely, they'd noticed we hadn't come back.

Brendon gave a small smirk, "I'm sure he is."

I paused, that smirk sent alarm bells off in my head. Something was very off about all of this. Oh god, we'd let Joe and Andy go outside, Pete had been outside, did that mean they'd captured them too? I thought about what happened at the police station, they could've easily done it again. One thing was different this time around, there wasn't Hayley and I to save them.

There was a silence between us, Brendon amazingly appeared to not have anything to say. He held his hand towards the door at end of the corridor.

"Well it seems you've made your choice." Brendon shrugged, before starting to walk away. "I suppose you're of no use... you can leave now."

Wow, that was surprisingly easy. Too easy, in fact.

"Well alright then." I nodded. "I guess I'll be leaving now."

I took a few steps and then I turned back to see Brendon smiling at me, a look of amusement on his face, like this was an episode of his favourite TV show. It frightened me, he was going to let me go, right?

"Pity, I already made the decision for you." He spoke.

"What do you mean?" I asked hesitating for just a moment. I knew I should run. I shouldn't play into his games like this.

"Oh, you'll discover soon enough." He grinned, and waved his hand towards the door.

I glanced at him hesitantly, but the door was already open. I was getting out of here.

Not taking any chances, I pulled myself up from the ground, and locked eyes with the door. I hoped that would be my escape route. If this was just a warning, surely, I would be able to escape. Hopefully.

Fear coursing through my veins, my feet tracked towards the door. I think I ran the fastest I ever had in my entire life. I looked behind me, Brendon was still miles away standing there watching me.

My hands enclosed around the silver handle. It didn't burn or anything. Maybe I could leave after all? Another glance at Brendon still no movement.

The smell that I had first encounter grew stronger as the door opened. I guess it was because I hadn't eaten for a while. There was another much larger room here, the walls were slate just as the room that I had been was. The moonlight trickled in through a single square window on the right side of the room. I spotted a shadowy figure sitting in the corner. Then I saw the cap and the black jacket. He looked so frail and pale, how long had we been here for?

"Patrick!" I yelled, racing towards him.

"Cassie!" He smiled, his eyes lighting up.

Then it was like I was choking, my vision turning to red as I coughed and stumbled. I felt my body spasm as everything was a blur for a moment. It was like having night vision googles on in red but all you could see was static.

The next thing I knew I was kneeling there, Patrick lying on the ground beside me, paler than ever. My hands covered in blood. I stared, my body trembling in fear. What the heck had I done?

Brendon snickered, as he stood beside me, the moonlight from the only window in the room reflecting on his skin. "Did you really think I'd let you go that easily? What an idiot you are, Princess. Hmm...I thought you were the smart one, you managed to escape us last time after all. But it won't happen again."


	10. Who's This Monster Wearing My Skin?

I put my hand behind me and slowly pulled myself up the brick wall, my bones wincing slightly as I did so. It was almost as if they hadn't been used for decades. My head killed, my throat burned and I found the eyes of a man in a bowler hat staring at me. A feeling of hatred poured over me, as my brain searched for his name. Dan? Jack? Brendon? Brendon,That was it. Why was my memory so foggy? I hadn't hit my head that hard had I? Now what was it I didn't like about him again? Laughter echoed through my ears and I groaned as memories of his personality came rushing back to me, I felt like shit and I really didn't feel up to his teasing.

"How are you feeling Princess?" He questioned, "Different?"

I closed my mouth and shook my head, I wasn't telling him anything. I put my left arm out in front of me to examine it, as if it held the answers. It just looked pale and chalky. Calm down Cassie, just because your skin is white as a ghost doesn't mean anything, surely? Why did it seem to mean so much to me, I couldn't seem to put my finger on it. I'd just been knocked out and all. Yes, that was it.

Brendon grinned at me. "Come on, how do you feel?"

I raised an eyebrow. 

Then like a freight train had hit me I saw everything. The blood. Me. Patrick. I wanted to scream as the images kept coming. I looked at my hands, still red stained with blood. 

"I killed him..." I muttered, looking up at him, "What did you do to me?"

"Oh I know, Sweetie... You're one of us now."

One of us...I froze, it was all suddenly coming back to me, like a stream of consciousness. Brendon was a Vampire. He'd wanted me to join the Dandies. Which meant...oh god no. I couldn't possibly be a Vampire or a Dandy...I thought about it carefully. He'd turned me before I'd even woken up in that room. I was such an idiot, if I'd been stronger that night at the warehouse. If... Well, maybe not, Pete was strong and clearly hadn't been able to stop someone from doing this to him either.

Pete. Where was he? Surely he would have been here before any of this had been allowed to happen. Maybe the others didn't really care about Patrick and I now that we were gone. 

I sighed, if what I knew about vampires was true, was that I technically dead right now. All because of the stupid guy that stood directly in front of me. I put my head in my hands, I couldn't take this right now.

"Problem?" He smiled, pulling my chin up, giving me a close up view of his cold dead eyes. 

"Yes." I glared up at him, "You."

With that he dropped my chin, and turned away. "Suit yourself."

That was when I noticed a shape lying on the other side of the floor. Nervousness flooded through my body. I raced over at such speed that I barley realized I was doing it. Patrick was still here, I pulled him over. 

I heard a loud slam like glass breaking. I turned to the noise, finding that the one window was now broken, shards of glass lying in chaos over the floor. 

I spun my head around to see a silhouette leap down from it. I felt something warm and weighted on my legs, I looked down to find Patrick's head resting on my kneeds, he didn't look so well. But my attention quickly flew back to Pete, "What have you done?!" he snarled, teeth bared and his eyes focused on Brendon who had his hand still on the door handle into the other room.

"Ah, Peter. Perfect timing." I heard him reply.

Pete's eyes slowly trailed over, his eyes meeting mine. I didn't want to know or think about what I had just been doing or how it looked. I expected him to look mad but he just looked at me with a sad expression on his face. Then his appearance changed to anger as he looked back to Brendon.

"You turned HER?" He growled, "How could you?"

"Aww Peter, it's not all bad. I thought you'd always wanted another Vampire around?" Brendon spoke his words dripping with sarcasm.

"You call being a Vampire okay?" Pete snarled, his hands balled into fists, "You killed her!"

Brendon shrugged.

Pete ran towards him, his fists bunched, teeth beared and snarling, "You'll pay for this one Brendon."

He went to leap on top of him, but in a dash of smoke, Brendon seemed to disappear, leaving only a bowler hat on the ground. Pete landed face first on top of it.

"UGH!" Pete yelled, kicking the bowler hat into the air, "Why do they always do this! First Beckett, now him."

Still fuming with rage, Pete turned to face me. "He'll pay for what he...oh god no."

His eyes had fallen to my shoulder and I knew exactly where he was looking. I couldn't hide it any longer, I moved backwards, holding Patrick up still. Surprising myself as I let out a low growl. What the heck was wrong with me, it was only Pete. Why was I growlling at him of all people?

"PATRICK!" He yelled, racing over to my side in a flash.

I followed his gaze, his neck was bleeding from where I'd bitten him and he was even paler than he'd been before. My stomach clenched, this was my doing. I didn't know what to say, guilt flooded me. I could feel my eyes growing watery. What had I done? I was a monster.

"What did they do to him?" Pete growled, thumping his fist on the ground.

I remained silent, as the tears began to slip down my face.

"Geez, Cassie, what did they do to him?" He turned to face me. He looked me up and down before gasping, "You? Did you..."

I looked at the ground, I couldn't tell him but I couldn't admit to it either.

Pete was silent for a while, he punched downwards at the air as tears streamed down his face. I had no idea, Vampires could cry. I peeked my head out from underneath my arms and hair, but here we were bawling like babies.

This was all my fault, Patrick was probably dying and....

Then I heard it. The small, weak sound of a heart-beat. Pete must have as well, because he looked up almost immediately, he look startled.

"He might still be alive." Pete gasped, "Come on we better get moving...."

He was already grabbing Patrick's arm and trying to pull him up onto his shoulder, but something stopped him.

"I can't believe their still here." A female voice laughed, from behind us.

I paused, that didn't sound good. My first thought went to Hayley, I hoped with all my heart that it wasn't her.

Pete and I spun around, there was a group of about four of five Dandies standing at the doorway. The one standing at the front was a female teenager with blonde ringlets, she wore a dress with a blazer, almost a modified version of the Dandies uniform. The other four were male, it was hard to distinguish one from the other in their outfits.

How the heck were we supposed to get out of here now? I looked to Pete, it clearly wasn't going to be that easy anymore.


	11. Misery Business

A feeling of dread rose in my stomach, as the woman smiled at us, I could faintly see her teeth in the darkness. Her piercing gaze focused on me for a few moments before turning them onto Pete, "Well, well... a bit slow aren't you Peter? I can't believe you raced here to rescue your friends."

"At least I have some." Pete growled. "I bet William sent you for us?"

She smiled, "Well of course, his offer is still available if you're willing to take it,"

The other vampires behind her nodded in unison.

There were a few moments of silence as Pete sat there shaking his head before snarling, "You know I won't do that. Hasn't he got it through that thick skull of his that I'm not going to join him no matter how hard he tries."

"Perhaps he thought you'd had a change of heart?" She shrugged, "but that's not the main reason we're here. Give us Patrick and the girl and we'll let you go."

"Excuse me, but I have a name you know...." I muttered under my breath, after all I'd been through tonight I hardly felt like being known as 'the girl'. I was trying not to think too much about what she had said though. Yet still I had to wonder why did they need Patrick and me? I'd known from the start when I first found out Vampire's existed that for whatever reason William and Brendon had wanted me to join them or something in one form or another but I had a suspicion it wasn't the only reason. But right now, it appeared the decision wasn't up to me anymore, Pete was going to be the one to decide what happened. Surely, Pete wouldn't hand us over to them though, at least I knew he would never hand Patrick over, I was another story, he was a jerk sometimes but I knew he was smarter than that.

Pete snarled, "Just leave then. You're not going to have them, we'll escape before I ever let you do that."

The woman frowned, "Well it seems you leave us with no choice, right boys."

They nodded, their eyes darting around the room feverish with anticipation. It was obvious what they had planned next.

"What are we going to do?" I whispered to Pete, quickly before they could make the first move.

"I'll protect Patrick, you go." He whispered in return.

"I can't leave you by yourself."

"Yes, you can. Now go."

As much as I didn't want to, I had to listen to Pete. One of us had to get out of here and I suppose that had to be me. Why was Pete being like this though? Maybe because he still thought there was a chance Patrick was still alive. I made a quick observation, Blondie and her gang of Dandies were still blocking the door, so that wasn't an option. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a dusty window, surely a little effort and I'd be able to push it open and make an escape. I just had to be quicker than the rest of the Dandies. It wasn't going to be easy but it was worth a shot.

The Dandies were still staring at us, none of us making a move. Well, I may as well be the first. I raced towards the window. Leaving Pete where he was, where he had now moved to stand in front of Patrick his fists raised. The blonde-haired girl, noticing my escape, immediately ran in my direction. I couldn't quite see what the other four were doing, I assumed Pete was probably having to deal with them, I felt a little guilty for only being stuck with only one of them. Suddenly I found that she was standing straight in front of me, I skidded on the floor coming to a complete stop only meters before her face. She smiled exposing blood stained teeth. I shivered, a little, my throat becoming dry once more. I can't even handle that, I thought to myself as I recoiled backwards so that I couldn't see it.

"You think you could run, did you?" She smiled, stepping forward towards me.

"Uh...yeah..."

"You've been a vampire, what five minutes?" She smiled, "Let me show you what I can do."

Before I had a chance to reply, her fist was heading towards me as she sent a right hook towards my face. I only had a few seconds to duck beneath it. She tried multiple times, and I just managed to scrape away each time. Which amazed me, was how quickly my body followed my thoughts. Well at least one good thing had come out of vampirism, I could move quickly in fights. It couldn't change what I'd done to Patrick though.... god why had I done that.

Something struck me in the stomach, and I felt the ground go from under me, as I was pushed backwards, my body slamming straight into the wall. Damn I really should've been paying more attention, not feeling sorry for myself. I looked to my arm, which flashed purple and bruise like for a few seconds before healing right up. I pulled myself back up again, as she raced towards me, at the last second, I dashed quickly out the way, causing her to run directly into the brick wall. She looked dazed for a few seconds, so I was ready to make a break for it when she quickly turned around to face me.

"No wonder the Masters sent us here for you," She smiled wickedly, "Your fast when you don't even know what you're doing."

I didn't know whether to feel pleased by her compliment, but the malice in her voice suggested otherwise. So, in return I just ended up snarling at her, and she snarled back at me, as we circled around one another. It seemed we were equally matched.

She kept trying though, as she pushed me backwards and made a grab for my hair. I spun in circles, trying desperately to get away from her, she was really trying this time. In the mayhem, my eyes were focused for a second, on something near the door. Two figures seemed to be dragging something along the ground. I panicked, I could see that Pete was fighting with the remaining Dandies, and Patrick wasn't where we'd left him. Which could only mean one thing, they were trying to take Patrick away. We were so busy fighting that we hadn't even noticed.

"Shit."

Energy surged through me, like a second gust of wind and I quickly punched the girl off, I let my feet take me towards him. I didn't know how but I had to help.

The girl dragged me backwards, no she was pulling me away! I couldn't let her, I kicked backwards, a loud snarl erupting from my throat. I couldn't let them win.

Suddenly, the doorway flung open, a small figure emerged, it was difficult to tell whether they were male or female as all I could see was darkness. They paused for only a brief second, then I saw the shadows arm punch in front of them knocking one of them out, then as the other Dandies tried to run away they seemed to slip their foot beneath them, tripping them up. Suddenly the shadow was heading towards us, in such a blur I could barely see them. Seconds later, I felt the blonde girl being dragged over my shoulder. I heard a loud crash from behind me and turned around to see they had her pushed up against the wall. Then I heard a crack and the girl fell to the ground.

I was tempted to run for Patrick, but I desperately wanted to know who the shadow was, so stupidly I spun around. I lifted my head up as my eyes met up with a flash of red in the darkness. Now they seemed to be staring at me, as if sizing up how to deal with me. Oh god, I was in trouble now, perhaps they weren't here to help us after all! The figure stepped forward into the dim lighting, revealing a set of familiar features I'd seen only a few weeks earlier.

"Hayley?!" I gasped.

She pulled off the black beanie, her bright yellow and orange hair floating out of it. It really was her!

She looked me up and down, her eyes resting for way longer than they should have at my mouth. I knew what she'd noticed. All I did was try not to draw attention to it, pity I wasn't doing a good job of it.

"Cassie?!?" She muttered, looking slightly happy but at the same time disappointed. "...you're a vamp too?"

I nodded, as my eyes looked down at the ground. "Only just."

She frowned, "I was too late..."

"You know one another?" Pete asked, as he came from behind us, he'd clearly managed to conquer the other Dandy.

"How else do you think Cassie performed that spectacular jail break?" Hayley smiled, proudly, "No human could've got you and three other grown men out on her own."

It seemed so odd hearing about that, it seemed almost like a lifetime ago. Hayley seemed proud of herself for us rescuing them, I thought about it, we did do a good job considering I hadn't trusted her for most of it.

"But, Hayley what on earth are you doing here? You know as much as I do, that Beckett wants you to join him, as bad as us." Pete protested.

She rolled her eyes, "So, that's the kind of thanks I get for saving your friend? Don't get too used to it then, Wentz."

"I won't" Pete sighed, "What are you here for anyway? You managed to escape so why would you come back?"

"As I said before, saving your skin." Hayley sighed, "Seems I was a little too late though...sorry Cassie..."

I shrugged, she didn't even have to be here, and considering she was, it meant she didn't seem to be an enemy after all, which made me happy by itself. There was no way I was admitting my suspicions that she was working for the Dandies, at least not now.

Pete's focus had turned to the ground, "Damn those Dandies have really messed things up now. I truly thought us staying out the way would've worked. Yet all I did was get another of us turned and P-"

He couldn't finish his sentence, he shook his head.

Hayley and I followed his gaze. I knew what he was about to say, exactly who he was referring to.

"Anyway, let's get going before any more show up." Hayley sighed, already trying to pick Patrick off the ground.

Pete kind of gave her a death stare, but seemed to relax when he noticed I was staring.

As we carried Patrick out, I followed the two of them along a long corridor, the cobblestone clicked beneath my combat boots, I was amazed at how much my eyes could adjust to the light. Even in the darkness I could distinctly see the line of bricks along the corridor. My stomach sunk as I remembered that it was just another way I was a monster.

After what seemed like a lifetime, I could see an extremely bright streetlight at the doorway at the end of the corridor, I shielded my eyes from it. But, it didn't seem to bother both Pete and Hayley though as they headed towards the waiting black car, I peered in curiously wondering if Joe or Andy had come with him, but it was apparent that he'd come alone. I thought that was odd, surely Pete would've brought them with him. Unless something had happened to them too?

"Where's Joe and Andy?" I asked as Pete unlocked the car doors.

"At home, probably still playing their video game." Pete shrugged.

"They didn't want to come?"

"I didn't tell them where I was going."

Pete came completely alone? But why? He'd have to have known by coming here that it was some sort of Dandy trap...perhaps that's why he had left them then? Perhaps he thought he could keep them out the way.

"What were you thinking?"

"That they were better off at home away from this mess," He grumbled, "Quit asking about it okay?"

"Okay." I sighed.

Pete made me open the back door for Hayley, and I watched as they laid Patrick out on the back seat. I felt awful, I knew this was my fault, if I hadn't let Brendon get the best of me. Maybe if in the corridor back at the corridor I'd done something else or if I'd remembered to grab some weapons....

Pete gestured for me to get into the front seat, and as I did so he handed me a wet towel. "You might want to wipe your face."

"Yeah," Hayley stood behind him, nodding.

_Huh?_

Spotting the side mirror, I turned my attention straight towards it. Though I kind of wish I hadn't. I stared at my reflection, I was disgusted at what I saw. My mouth was covered in blood, I looked as much like a monster as I felt. It was awful. I felt sick inside.

I wanted this over with, I quickly wiped away the evidence with the towel as if it would destroy the monster that had just been staring back at me. I looked back in the mirror but my pale skin, fangs and dark, almost black eyes still reminded me of the monster I was now, the one who had just killed her friend. After what I'd done tonight I was terrified of what I'd be capable of. Seeing this in myself, I wondered how exactly I'd managed to trust Pete for so long. Surely it was like this for him as well? It had to feel like he was forever fighting a losing battle, I knew I'd feel the way I had again, especially when we got back home.

Home.

"How far are we from the warehouse?" I questioned as I chucked the towel away into the car's bin. It sounded so strange to think of going back, after everything had changed so much, it didn't feel like I would belong there anymore. I mean would I even be welcome when I got there? Okay, probably not the best thing to think about...

"A good hour at least." Pete sighed.

Ugh, I groaned, I did not feel like having my head eat me away for the next hour over what I'd done.

"O-"

I slipped into the passenger seat and Pete jumped into the drivers. Hayley opened the opposite side of the car door and jumped in.

Pete glared at her, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm coming with you too." Hayley smiled, as she shut the car door behind her.

"What?"

Hayley nodded.

"Will you quit trying to be so helpful all the time?" Pete snapped at her, "Do you think I can't handle this on my own or something."

She sighed, "Pete, I'm not going to let you handle this on your own. You can barely handle yourself, let alone teaching Cassie or helping Patrick. Trust me, I had to help you enough, I know what you're like. I'm helping you whether you like it or not. I'm not leaving this time, you need me."

So, that was why Pete wasn't too surprised to see her, Hayley had helped Pete. That made a bit more sense to why she was so helpful to me. I didn't care what Pete thought, I wanted her to stay.

"Having another girl around would be nice..." I muttered quietly.

Hayley nodded, "It wouldn't hurt...would it Pete?"

Pete sighed, "If you want I suppose...but Joe, Andy and I will have it covered."

Hayley rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean, there's only one of you Pete, and there is Joe and Andy, you know what I'm saying right? Quit being stubborn, things could get ugly."

I was thinking about Joe and Andy again, understanding what Hayley might mean, after what I did to Patrick and my reaction to the blonde, I could easily do something to them.

Pete paused, he grimaced, "Fine. You win."

She smiled, "Perfect."

I felt a little bit better, with Hayley around surely, I'd be able to make it through this mess I'd gotten myself into.

"Though are you sure it won't be too much trouble?" I asked quietly.

Hayley smiled, "Not at all, I got nothing but time on my hands."


	12. We Are Alive, Here In Death Valley

It was an entire hour before I began to spot the familiar row of trees that were on the roadway that lead back up to the warehouse. I was glad to be going back, but also a little scared of what would happen when we did get there. I sighed, the whole car trip had been in almost complete silence, apart from the soft heartbeat, coming from the back seat. It kept me from being calm, the whole time I wondered what would happen if I couldn't hear it anymore, well... the car would probably descend into chaos.

The car stopped and I watched as Hayley jumped out only seconds later, I supposed I had to get out as well. So, that's exactly what I did. I followed Hayley over to the other side of the car, my feet crunching on the dirt driveway as my shoes contacted it. Pete jumped out a few moments later before opening the door to back seat. In an eerie, silence, Pete and Hayley hoisted Patrick out of the car. No one had said for me to help, so I just followed silently behind.

"Can you grab the door for us?" Hayley eventually spoke, when we were close to the side of the building.

I did as I was told, but instantly regretted it. The moment I opened the door I was greeted with the smell was blood, my throat burned almost immediately. I recoiled backwards into Hayley, almost causing her to drop Patrick. I didn't want to go in there. The things I would do if I did, I couldn't think like that. I sighed, how could I be so hungry again, already?

Hayley frowned as she handed the care of Patrick completely over to Pete. She turned and looked me in the eyes, a sad smile on her face, "It'll be okay, trust me. You can do this."

It was weird, but her words did somehow make me feel a hundred times calmer. My throat had even stopped burning as badly.

Okay, I was going in. Pete pushed past us, still with Patrick over his shoulder, he was in first, I followed with Hayley right behind me. I jumped as the door slammed behind her, why was everything so damn loud right now?

Seconds later, a voice called from the couch, "Pete? Is that you?"

"Yeah." Pete sighed, I stopped mid-way but Hayley pushed me onward, along the rest of the corridor and towards the room. I followed behind Pete, entering soon after.

Joe and Andy's mouths fell open, they'd noticed right away just as I'd expected. It was kind of making me feel like an idiot for not realizing that William was a vampire when he'd first been in the coffee shop, or even after that when I'd woken up in the warehouse and met Pete. I suppose the thought of Vampire's existing hadn't even crossed my mind back then.

"What the-?"

"Yes, I'm a vampire." I hissed, "Deal with it."

Okay, why the heck did I say that to them? I'd always gotten mad at Pete for his stupid remarks to decent questions and here I was doing the same stupid thing. I was starting to think it might just be a Vampire thing.

"Wait, you're a Vamp?" Joe gasped, looking me in the eyes, okay so maybe they hadn't been looking at me, "I was actually meaning Patrick...but what the heck happened to you?"

"Uh..."" How on earth was I going to explain this to them? I hadn't really thought this far ahead.

Before I could reply, Joe and Andy exchanged a glance, before both looking at Pete suspiciously. They thought he'd done it, didn't they? I mean, I would've thought the exact same thing. From the way, they were both looking at him, they obviously hadn't seen Hayley who was standing behind me, looking a little nervous. If they had, I'm sure they would've been putting the blame on her as well.

"Pete, did you do this?" Andy managed to ask.

"Why does everyone always blame me for this stuff? Typical, blame the one with the fangs!" Pete groaned, rolling his eyes, "It was our good friend Brendon, of course."

"Brendon!" Joe gasped, "Pete what the hell did he do to her? Patrick too?"

Pete crossed his arms, he didn't seem to be enjoying this interrogation any more than I was.

"It's a long story..." I sighed, trying to help Pete out, "I guess the main thing you need to know is that I'm a vampire now, because of Brendon.... And uh...Patrick....well..."

Best to leave the possibility that I might have killed Patrick out of this.... I looked to Pete for help on how to explain that part.

"He got injured really badly in the fight." Pete nodded.

Thank goodness, Pete was going to pretend it wasn't me.

"Brendon really has become William's pet, hasn't he?" sighed Andy, shaking his head. "To think we were friends once."

Wait, did Andy say he was friends with Brendon? Why had no one mentioned this to me before?

"You were friends with Brendon?"

"We all were...." Joe nodded, seeming to say that it was a soft topic among them, I wondered just how he'd managed to upset them so much. "Anyway, we're worrying about Patrick now, how bad is he? I know Patrick's the best at the medical stuff but perhaps I can give it a shot."

"He was almost drained of blood..." I answered quickly, before anyone could say that I'd done it. "His heart's still beating so he's still alive..."

"I don't think we have long." Pete muttered. "So be quick."

"Okay." Joe nodded, looking as though he was trying to remain calm, "I can work with that. Pete, you still got some blood bags?"

Blood, even the word was starting to make me thirsty again. It didn't seem to bother Pete though because he simply nodded and pointed towards the kitchen. "There's some in the fridge."

"Alright, but can all you Vampires go outside for a bit, I don't want to have to look over my shoulder the entire time. I'll call you both back in when it's all gone."

He kind of did have a point. I looked at Pete, who nodded. I spun around, Hayley was already headed towards the door, it was like she wanted to leave. Pete followed along behind me as we walked back out into the cool night air. I knew that it would be sunrise soon, so hopefully we wouldn't have to stay out here too long. Pete went straight past me and sat on the hood of the car. I could hear another set of footsteps behind me, I was surprised to turn around and find that Andy had come out with us too. I kind of thought he might have stayed in there as well to help Joe out.

Andy blinked at Hayley, I was surprised he'd missed her, you could see her bright orange hair a mile away.

"Hmm... now, who would you be?" Andy asked looking at Hayley.

"Hayley Williams." She smiled, "I'm a friend of Pete's and Cassie's, I'm going to be around here for a little while. Your Andy, right?"

He nodded, looking a little concerned by her presence and probably the fact she knew his name. It was a little scary how she seemed to know that. He clearly hadn't met her before.

"So, if all this happened, then I take it you really didn't go hunting then?" Andy raised an eyebrow, looking at Pete.

Pete looked to the ground. "No."

"So, what did happen?"

Pete went on to explain everything to Andy, with some extra information from Hayley and I. Leaving out what I'd done. However, Hayley never mentioned how exactly she'd known where to go to find us, which sucked because that was kind of what I was hoping to find out. I mean how else had she found us tonight and when the guys were locked up.

Andy sighed, "Pete. You should've told us, we could've come with you and-"

"You would've got yourselves injured." Pete huffed back, cutting him off.

Andy didn't have an answer to that, so there was silence for what seemed like an eternity, before the door opened again. Panic quickly set in, as Joe appeared, he looked tired and worn out. Was everything okay?

"I think he'll be alright."

It was if someone had taken a massive weight off my shoulders. Patrick was going to be fine, he wasn't dying. Joe had saved him; those stupid second rate Dandies didn't take him or myself and Pete didn't have to be mad at me anymore. Everything was going to be perfect, I was going to get through this and I was somehow going to find a way to get revenge on Brendon for what he did to me.

Eventually the time came when we decided it was time to get some rest, re-reinforced by the orange ring that had begun to form in the sky, the sun was rising and if we didn't go inside soon, it wasn't going to end very well for Hayley, Pete and me.

Hayley was put into my room for the night. Apparently, the spare room had been Brendon's and no one was ready to clear that out just yet. I didn't blame them really; Andy and Joe had been really embarrassed about it. Pete had just looked away the entire time like he didn't care.

I sat back on my bed, and closed my eyes hoping that some form of sleep would come, but instead, the images of Brendon turning me, attacking Patrick, Pete's sad look flooded my vision. It was hopeless at this rate I wouldn't get any sleep. I was kind of wishing that myth that Vampires didn't need sleep was true, because it would be helpful in this situation.

I rolled over on my bed and faced Hayley, who was sitting on her bed, wide awake, she was on a mobile phone and she looked to be texting. Maybe she'd be happy to stay awake with me.

"I can't sleep." I sighed.

"You keep re-playing what happened aren't you?" She queried, looking up from her phone and placing it on the bed.

She'd got me, I nodded.

"It's not your fault. Any of us would've ended up doing the same."

"That's just it, I'm a monster. Next time it could be Joe or Andy...."

"You're not...we're not _monsters_..." Hayley shook her head, emphasizing the word monsters with air quotation marks, "We're just different, I guess. At least that's the way I try and think of it. It gets easier...the first few times are always the worst, especially when you get drained of blood. So, don't worry."

I stared at her.

"Okay well.... not quite...." She sighed, "But look at least Patrick didn't die. I mean he's... not that well either...but we'll get through this."

"You sure? I had no control, it was terrifying and..."

She raced over to my bed, looking me straight in the eyes she put her finger to her lips, "Shhh. It'll be alright. I'll help you through it. So, will Pete in his own way. You know what he's like, he's practically the definition of a brooding vampire."

I couldn't help but laugh a little. She had that right, he was brooding and a jerk.

She patted me on the shoulder. A cold shiver went through me like the first time we met, but it seemed stronger now. I looked up at Hayley who was staring at me, her eyes wide in shock.

"What?" I asked.

She shrugged, "Nothing."

Clearly realising we'd reached a dead-end, I thought of something I'd wanted to ask her that night that she'd helped me bust the guys out of prison, "Hey, I've been wanting to ask, how you managed to get that piece of paper to show the policeman when we got the guys out. You're not a Dandy, are you?"

"Not a chance! They're a bunch of creeps." She quickly defended, she looked down to the ground, her voice quieter, "But, let's just say I have a friend on the inside of the Dandies who told me what was going on and were able to forge it for me."

I stared at her, Hayley might not be a dandy herself, but she had a friend in the Dandies?

"Look, it's not like that. Believe it or not, there are Dandies there who follow Beckett, but not to the extent of how stupid Brendon does as his little lap dog. Basically, they don't agree with how their master has been treating you hunters. In fact, they think they should make a pact with you, not trying to kill and turn you all off."

So not all Dandies were evil and heartless. Well that was a shock. I thought about it, there had been that curly haired dandy that had simply looked at me and then away, perhaps he wasn't evil? Maybe Hayley was right.

"But then why did you vanish the other night?"

Hayley sighed, "It's complicated. Basically, I didn't want Pete to know I was helping you, or Beckett for that matter, he's supposed to think I'm miles from here."

Why couldn't Pete know about her? I had to admit that was odd, but I brushed it off. Hayley had already proved she wasn't working for William, so why should I question her? She was probably just trying to keep a low profile or something.

"I heard Pete mention something about that, if you're supposed to be miles from here, then why on earth would you come back?" I asked.

"Well I didn't exactly leave in the first place, but look there's reasons. It's a lot safer that you don't find out until I know exactly what's going on," She sighed, "Geez, look at me, now I'm starting to sound like Brendon..."

"Like what reasons?" I retorted, "I can help you, I don't care if it's dangerous, I need to know what's going on."

"The last time I trusted someone with it...no... look things haven't been working out enough as they are without you knowing about that."

"What do you mean it didn't work? Things aren't too bad, now are they?"

She shook her head, "True, but in the long run..."

"What?"

"W-I didn't want him to turn you or injure Patrick for that matter." She mumbled, "It changes everything."

"Hayley, what the hell are you talking about?"

She sighed, "Nothing, just don't do anything stupid okay?"

"Um...okay."

I sighed, Hayley was being oddly mysterious again and I didn't like it.


	13. Time-Bomb

It had been three days since we'd come back, I was slowly getting used to this whole being a vampire thing, but there was still something that bothered me, Patrick's condition hadn't improved at all. As each day went on, I became more and more nervous. What if he really wasn't going to be alright? I couldn't let myself think that way, even for a second. I suppose it wasn't helping that Pete hadn't looked me in the eyes and he'd been shutting himself in his room ever since we'd gotten back. Hayley had assured me that it was fine and we just had to let him go, but it still made me feel awful anyway. Joe and Andy weren't as bad thankfully, they weren't exactly comfortable with having another two vampires in the house but at least they could be in the same room as me, as I was starting to be able to with them. Hayley had been trying to teach me to be able to shut the blood out, I wasn't perfect at it but I was getting better. We still hadn't been hunting in ages, so the entire town could be vampires by now for all we knew. I guess we were all still a little shaken up, and we couldn't really leave Patrick behind.

We'd decided a few days ago, to move Patrick into his own room. His room was almost identical to my own, besides there being one less bed and a lot of hats. I'd stayed in here all evening, and had done so for every day since. I felt bad leaving him, when I knew it was my fault. Occasionally Hayley would come in the room and sit with me, and I knew Pete did too when I wasn't in here. The only other people who stayed in here almost as much as me were Joe and Andy. Today, the three of us sat together in silence.

The doorbell went off, someone was here? That was odd, we rarely had visitors and no one had said anyone was coming. We looked between one another, who was going to answer it? Pete and Hayley were here but I had a feeling neither of them would probably answer it. Neither Joe or Andy went to move, so I decided it was going to be me.

"I guess I'll go." I sighed, picking myself up from my seat. Joe and Andy simply nodded, this whole waiting for Patrick to be better had been wearing them out too.

Alone, I walked to along the hallway and headed for the front door, on tip toes, I peeked through the small round window at the top of the door. One guy stood outside, he held a bowler hat in his hands. No, it couldn't be Dandies. We had enough going on without a visit from one of them. They looked upwards, making me realise that it wasn't Brendon or William at the doorstep. He had curly dark coloured hair. I had seen him before. He'd been the one that had let me escape.

I remained at the door for a few moments, what should I do? Well I could grab one of the others, no I'd feel like an idiot doing that. I could just let him stay there, but then what if he tried to break inside the house? I mean, we'd only just fixed the window from the other night. I don't think the guys would be too happy if we broke another one.

"Cassie, what's up?" Hayley called as she peeked her head out from the lounge, she'd been out there on her phone all morning, with her headphones in and probably hadn't heard the doorbell ring.

I put a finger to my lips and pointed to the door.

She gave me a confused look but was by my side in a flash. She peeked through the peep-hole in the door and frowned.

"What is he doing here..."

"Exactly what I was..."

She pushed straight past me and to my surprise opened the door up. Why wasn't she hesitating? Was she going to let in or talk to him? Maybe she was going to fight him? Whatever she was doing, I wasn't sure if I liked it.

"Tay?" She hissed, "What the heck are you doing here? Get in before someone sees you."

With that, she dragged them inside and shut the door.

I stared at her dumbfounded what the heck was she doing? Letting a Dandy into the house? The rest of the guys were going to freak, wait I was already freaking. How could she just do that, I mean he was a Dandy, you don't just let them in.

"Don't worry, he's a friend," She turned to me, noticing my confusion. I remembered about what she'd said about having a friend on the inside, this was clearly what she'd meant, but I wished she'd said something before she'd flung the door wide open for him.

"Give me a break Hayley. William sent me here..." He sighed. "To give you a message..."

Hayley raised an eyebrow, before shaking her head, and whispering to him angrily, "You know you're only supposed to infiltrate the Dandies! Not be their messenger boy."

Infiltrate? I was starting to get a sense there was much more to Hayley being here than I thought and that perhaps what she had told me the night before wasn't all true. Who was this Dandy?

He sighed, "We both agreed that I had to follow his orders without him suspecting me. That's all I'm doing Hales."

"Fine." She sighed, "Let me just grab the guys as well, I'm assuming your message is for all of us?"

He nodded.

"Okay, uh, Cassie take them into the lounge room, and I'll find everyone."

Why did I have to do be the one left alone with the Dandy? He was liable to try and attack me while Hayley was gone. Considering every time, I'd been left alone with a Dandy that had pretty much been what happened. I sighed, I had to calm down, Hayley said he was fine, so it would be okay. I just had to trust her that he was. Besides, she'd mentioned infiltrating the Dandies to him. It seemed likely that they were probably more on our side than Beckett's anyway. Did that even make them Dandies? Well, I guess I'm about to find out.

"I'm Taylor, your Cassie, right?" He asked as he gave a small nervous smile.

"Yeah, that's me." I sighed, "But wait how did you know that?"

"Hayley." Taylor nodded, "And Beckett won't stop shoving pictures of you in our face."

"Pictures?" I muttered, feeling a little concerned, I was fine with them knowing my name because of Hayley because there was a good chance if he were helping us it would be useful to know. But, William having a picture of me and showing it to the Dandies, now that was creepy.

"I guess, he wants us to know what you look like," Taylor shrugged, "A bit stalkerish if you ask me, but that's him for you."

"Just a little..."

"So now we've got the intros out the way, follow me, I guess." I smiled, trying to be welcoming. Kill them with kindness I thought to myself.

I sat down, and Taylor sat beside me. Hayley hadn't arrived yet, so I figured it might be a good chance to ask some questions.

"I'm so confused as to why you'd be friends with Hayley, I mean you're a Dandy, aren't you supposed to be enemies with pretty much everyone else?"

Taylor looked down as if he was working out how to answer that question.

"I've been friends with her for a long time." Taylor eventually sighed, "Not even Beckett could change that."

I was about to ask, how they'd met, when Hayley walked in the room, with Joe and Andy following behind her. Both their eyes popped open when they saw who was sitting at the table. They seemed more shocked by this then when we'd walked in the door carrying Patrick the other night.

"A Dandy?" Joe muttered, glaring at her. "Hayley wh-"

She cut him off, "I told you I had friends.... just you know ignore the clothing..."

Last to enter the room was Pete, he glared at Hayley, throwing daggers across the room. I could tell precisely what he was thinking, why on earth, had we let a Dandy into the warehouse. He didn't say anything, but he didn't look too impressed either as he took one of the remaining seats at the table.

When Pete had settled, Hayley made introductions between everyone. When they were, over Taylor began to talk, "Look we're here because William wants a meeting with Cassie."

"Why?" I blurt out without thinking.

Taylor bit his lip, "He has something he wants you to consider."

That didn't sound good, William wanting anyone to consider anything never ended well.

Pete looked angrily at him. "If it's about her joining the Dandies, then he already knows the answer is no, doesn't he?"

Taylor shook his head, "I don't think it's that. Besides, we're just being the messengers."

So, if it wasn't about me joining the Dandies, then what else could it possibly be about?

"Alright, how long do we have to decide on this meeting?" I asked, knowing that things like this probably came with time limits.

"Till Tomorrow night." Taylor nodded. "He wants to meet you at the main car-parking lot in town at midnight, you to come alone of course, like you-"

"That's not enough time..." Joe interrupted, "If he wants her to come alone, it sounds like a bit of a trap to me."

Joe was right, tomorrow night wasn't enough time to decide anything, especially when we had Patrick to worry about and all. Knowing anything to do with the Dandies it was probably a trap, if Hayley hadn't come along the last two times they'd tried to trick us, I don't know what would've happened.

"Unless we got them while their out in the open." Pete thought aloud, totally ignoring Joe.

"Then we could wait in the shadows and totally go for it. The way that area's designed, I reckon we could do it without William even knowing we were there until it was too late." Hayley added, looking at Pete like he was a genius.

"That could work." Pete nodded.

"So basically, you want me to be bait?" I raised an eyebrow. There was no way I could sit here and hide my dislike of Hayley and Pete's plan. They both turned and looked at me, as if I was crazy.

"William's there, so we bring him out in the open. We'll kill him, simple." Hayley nodded.

Come on, I thought we'd established by now that killing William was not 'simple', even I knew that. He would have all his little Dandies all over us in seconds and I had a feeling if Brendon was there too, he wouldn't leave his masters side even for a second. I would've thought Hayley would know that.

"Surely you two have a better plan than that? We're practically handing her over to the Dandies..." Andy mumbled.

Thank you, Andy. At least someone was thinking rationally, if we followed Pete and Hayley's plan I had a feeling things wouldn't end too well.

Taylor nodded, looking uncertain, "I don't know Hales...I agree with Andy. I mean, what if she's sire bonded to them? Then what do we do? Not everyone can just tell the person who bit us to go away, you know."

"Sire bonded?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, we never explained that did we..." Joe sighed, "Basically who ever turns you is kind of like your master. That's one of the reasons the Dandies are so powerful, they'll do anything William tells them to do."

I shivered at the thought of having to take orders from Brendon. I could hear that stupid way he called me Princess right now. I did not feel like having any part in that, it sounded disgusting.

"But don't worry not everyone's sired to whichever Vampire turned them." Hayley added. "You don't see Pete or I taking orders from William, do you?"

"Well...no."

"Anyway, so I reckon we should get her to..."

I tuned out, it sucked, everyone was making plans around me and...

"Cassie maybe you should go outside for a bit...." Taylor whispered, from the seat beside me. "You need a break."

I nodded at him gratefully, that was just the thing I needed right now. I couldn't sit here listening to this any longer. Not saying another word, I slipped from the table.

"What is she doing?" I heard Pete grumble, "This involves her..."

Taylor shrugged, "Give her a rest, it's a lot to take in....becoming a vampire and then finding out Beckett is still after you for who knows what reason this time. I thought you'd understand that just as much as any of us."

I didn't hear Pete's reply, because I went outside, closing the door behind me before I slid down the doorway. I couldn't handle this. Why did things have to be this way? I didn't ask to be a vampire, I didn't ask for stupid William to come to the coffee shop I was working at and get his Dandies to attack me. I didn't even ask for the hunters to rescue me, sure I knew the consequences of my choice to join them but this hadn't exactly been what I'd had in mind. Well, Pete had tried to warn me I suppose, perhaps I should've just said no and left the country and gone somewhere where William would never find me. Like I'd have the money for that though.

"Just what on earth have I gotten myself into?" I muttered to myself. "I don't want to go and wait there to talk to Beckett. I should just let him come and find me, if he wants to talk to me so badly."

That was just it. Why did I have to listen to Beckett? It's not like I must do everything he says or anything. The best thing I could do was to do nothing at all.

I picked up and brushed myself off before I stormed back in the room, the moment I entered all their eyes were focused on me.

"So, we decided that-" Hayley began.

I shook my head, "I don't care what Beckett wants, I'm staying right here tomorrow night and if he wants to come and talk to me well I guess he's going to have to come and find me."

I was amazed, Taylor looked a little relieved. Joe and Andy looked between one another and shrugged. Pete looked annoyed, but he was going to have to get over it. There was no way I was meeting up with Beckett tomorrow night.

"Okay, I guess if that's what you want...I mean it's you he wants to talk to you after all, not us." Hayley sighed.

Yup, that was exactly what I planned to do. Hopefully I'd made the right choice, or who knew what William would do next.

*****************

Later that night I sat in my bedroom, even after my declaration I couldn't possibly sleep or do anything, without wondering whether I'd made the right choice. Hayley hadn't come back into our room yet, she'd said she was seeing Taylor out but I hadn't seen her since. I could still hear Joe and Andy's hearts beating in the next room. My throat was throbbing. I needed blood. I crawled out of bed, casting my eyes over the untouched sheets on Hayley's bed. Where was she?

Anyway, I shouldn't be worrying about that, I needed blood, so to the kitchen I headed, along the corridor.

"We have to tell them Hales." I heard a voice talking.

I stopped. Who was that?

"We can't, they're not ready..."

"Don't say that, I know what happened. William knows about me... about them. You can tell by the way he's been acting lately. It's only a matter of time until he gets what he wants."

I peeked around the corner, Hayley was talking to someone. I quickly realized that it was Taylor. There was something that seemed quite private about what they were talking about, but I couldn't help but feel like they were talking about us. Would it be right to walk in there and ask what was happening? Perhaps it wouldn't, but they weren't exactly in the most private spot though, so I could just pretend I hadn't realized or something. I sighed, hanging back for a few moments, deciding whether to bust in on a conversation was tough.

"I know, I mean if he ever got his hands-on Joe and Andy for example..."

Joe and Andy? Alright, that was enough of an invitation for me to bust in on their discussion. So, I decided to take the stupid move, I came out of the hallway and into the kitchen. "What about Joe and Andy?"

Hayley paused, stiffening up, before she turned around to look at me. She looked rather worried, "How much did you hear?" she asked, her tone sharp.

Uh, what did I say. I'd only heard enough to tell they were discussing something that sounded important and that Joe and Andy had something to do with it.

"She wasn't there long." Taylor sighed, replying before I could.

"You knew?"

Taylor nodded.

"So, uh what's going on? What were you saying about Joe and Andy?"

Taylor and Hayley looked at one another, before Hayley spoke, "Nothing, that's not important now."

I wanted to know what they were talking about, but I realized that their discussion was over. Darn, I should've just stayed hidden for a little longer then I might have found out was going on.

"Well, I better be off. I should get back to the Dandies."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here? You know what I mean right?"

Taylor shook his head, "Nah, it'll be fine. You worry too much Hales. You'll see it'll all work out. I have it."

"Okay," She sighed, "Look out for yourself."

"Oh, don't worry I will." he smiled, "I'll see you both later."

"Uh, see ya." I replied, feeling a little awkward, knowing that I was most likely the reason he'd left so quickly.

With that he left out the kitchen window. When he was completely gone, I stared straight at Hayley, she had some serious explaining to do.

"Look there's nothing to say, alright?" She shrugged before she turned and walked away towards the corridor that led back to our room.

I sighed, it seemed I wasn't going to find out what was going on after all. I knew one thing for sure Hayley was hiding something. I'd suspected it before, but Taylor had seemed to know what was going on as well so he was obviously in on it too. Perhaps he was the one I should be asking the information from, because clearly Hayley wasn't going to tell me a thing. I guess I'll just have to find out the truth myself. 


	14. Thank You For The Venom

It was early evening and I was the only one in the room with Patrick. Hayley wasn't awake yet, and Joe and Andy had gone to try and find a doctor who might be able to help us. We'd had our doubts about getting anyone else involved in this. I mean how exactly did you explain that he'd been attacked by a vampire? If they didn't know they'd think we were crazy. Besides, considering the police officers were in with the Dandies, who knew how many doctors were too? But Patrick still hadn't recovered and there was only so much we could do. I'd offered to go with them, but they'd insisted that I stay here.

I hadn't really talked to Hayley after what happened the night before when I'd walked in on her conversation with Taylor. The rest of the night she'd stayed mad at me, I'd tried to talk to her again when I got back to our room but she just ignored me like I wasn't there. Hopefully, she'd come around.

At least one good thing was happening though, I knew that right now, Beckett would be standing in that parking lot waiting for me and wondering where I was. I could just picture the look he'd have when he'd realize that I wasn't going to show up. I didn't feel guilty even one little bit, I mean at the end of the day, why should I? It wasn't like there was some law that you had to talk to every vampire that wanted a meeting with you. Especially when they were the leader of the very thing you were trying to stay far away from.

I sighed, other than that things just didn't seem to be improving at all. What was that saying. again? Things must get worse before they get better? Well hopefully we were onto the better, because I was sick and tired of the worse. I leaned back into the chair, I sighed, would things ever be that way?

I looked back at Patrick, swearing that I saw his's eye flutter. I blinked, did I just see that? I stared at him for a few moments more, when I saw him blink again. Was he waking up or was I just imagining it?

"Patrick?" I gasped, feeling kind of like an idiot.

"Mm."

So, he really does seem to be awake. Okay, I thought to myself, my thoughts suddenly thrown into a frenzy, what should I do? Call Pete and Hayley in here? But Hayley was asleep and Pete was still mad at me. Then should I deal with him myself?

"Could you get me something to eat?" Patrick mumbled before I could decide, his eyes were now open and staring at me.

Something to eat, I could probably do that, at least then I could let everyone else know he was alright, besides Joe and Andy might be back by the point. I picked myself up from my chair, "Yeah alright, I'll try and see what I can find."

I waked out the room, I was feeling a heck of a lot better. Patrick was awake and alive, I hadn't killed him. I continued along to the kitchen where I busied myself with the annoying fact that the only food left in the cupboard was some two-minute noodles. I hoped, Andy and Joe were going shopping when they were out. Well, it wasn't the best option, but it was the only one. So, I sucked it up and made the noodles.

When they were finished cooking, I headed up the hallway, finally something was going right around here. Maybe Pete might forgive me now...yeah right like that was going to happen in a hurry.

I came to the doorway of Patrick's room, where quickly it became apparent that something was wrong, Patrick wasn't lying on the bed anymore. I creeped around the corner, hoping I'd find him looking out the window or something. Instead, there was Brendon standing there complete with his devilish smile. That wasn't what worried the most though, because beside him was William who had Patrick in his arms and was gripping him by the throat.

I froze, letting the bowl in my hands drop to the ground, I could feel the sweltering hot liquid seeping through my toes, but I didn't care, all my focus was on the guy in front of me. Why was he here, and why did he have Patrick in a headlock? I quickly assessed the situation. Alright, so there was blood all over Patrick's face. I sniffed the air, it wasn't human's blood or it would have made me hungry again. What had he done to him? Then it came to me, the one thing I couldn't let happen. But how on Earth was I going to stop him from doing it?

"I was right, I told you she'd make a pretty vampire." Brendon smiled at William proudly, interrupting my planning.

"Let go of him." I snarled, at them, ignoring Brendon's comment.

"I would..." William nodded, leaning in towards Patrick's throat. "But, someone was supposed to meet us tonight, and didn't."

Suddenly avoiding them was feeling like a bad idea, but I couldn't let them know I'd realized that. I hadn't quite expected them to react like this.

"I must have forgotten, what a pity." I rolled my eyes back.

"How convenient." Brendon smiled, from the look on his face I could tell he knew I was lying.

"You bet it was," I smirked, "Meeting with two stuck up vampires wasn't exactly on my to-do list today."

"Ouch, looks like we'll have to work on impressing you better, Princess." Brendon smiled, putting his hand over his chest as if he'd been wounded by those words.

 _Well, if you're trying to impress me your doing it the completely wrong way_. I thought to myself bitterly. Having someone's friend in a headlock was not the way to do it.

Anyway, what was I doing? I couldn't possibly let these two get away with this one. I raced forward towards them, and thrust my leg out in front of me, to try and kick him but Brendon just grabbed my leg and flipped me. I fell onto the ground. I pulled myself back up, I wasn't letting that be the end. I swiped Brendon in the face, but it just missed him, it appeared he was much quicker than me. I was just pulling my back up when William started laughing.

"This is all very entertaining but we don't have a lot of time...so how about we come to a deal..." William looked at Brendon, "You agree to marry me and I'll let Patrick go."

"Marriage?" I spat back, okay that had not been the kind of question I'd been expecting or wanting to here. Had I even heard, that, right? Surely, he didn't expect me to agree to that there was no way, I would marry him, I didn't even like him, let alone do something like that. Ew.

"Or how about Brendon, considering you two both seem to get along so well?"

Even worse. Ugh, what kind of sick idea was this. There had to be more to it than that. I mean we were probably around the same age and everything but no.

"Fine then, if you're not going to play along, then I guess I'll just have to turn Patrick then."

Oh, god no, surely, he was bluffing this time. He was joking, right? What would happen if he turned him, I mean would Patrick be like Brendon and join the Dandies? Surely, he wouldn't I mean Pete, Hayley and I hadn't but. Pete would kill me, if I let Patrick get hurt again. He was already mad at me, I didn't want to see it any worse. What could I do though? I didn't exactly want to get stuck with the Dandies either...On the other hand all Dandies weren't bad though, Taylor had seemed friendly, so perhaps there were others. At the very least I'd be able to stick with him, and after a few years maybe I'd find a way to escape, perhaps I could even keep them from hurting the rest of the guys.

Hayley's words 'Don't do anything stupid' came back to me, maybe this was exactly the kind of thing she'd been talking about? I sighed, we were talking about Patrick, the guy who had saved my life on multiple occasions and all I'd really done was hurt him. I seriously owed him one, I couldn't let Beckett make him like us, even if it meant an eternity of misery for me. I would find a way out somehow, eventually.

"Fine, I'll-"

"No, I won't let you agree." A voice called from behind me.

I spun around, it was Hayley, she was standing in the doorway looking directly at Beckett. She didn't look too happy to see him, but who would?

"Ah, Hayley you're just in time." William smirked, "We were just having a lovely conversation."

Pfft. Any conversation with William was not lovely especially not this one.

Hayley frowned, looking directly at Patrick, "Blackmailing people to side with you again are we William?"

"Funny I should find you here Hayley, I thought you were done with this place." William smiled, "If I recall correctly your two friends are working for me now, after them I didn't think there was anything left for you here."

Her two friends? Was he talking about Jeremy and Taylor? Most likely. Hayley was looking away from him now, she didn't seem to have anything to reply to him with.

"What is your choice then, Cassie?" William smiled, turning back to me.

"Y-"

"She's not going to join you Beckett." Hayley cut me off, "Get over it."

Dammit, why didn't she let me finish! I was going to fix everything, she didn't understand what he was going to do to Patrick if I said, no.

"Fine." He smiled, "You leave me with no choice."

"No-I"

But it was too late, I tried to race forward again, but Brendon grabbed my arm pulling me backwards. When I heard a loud crack, he'd done it.

I fell backwards, how could he?

"The longer you delay joining the Dandies, the more of your friends we'll turn. Hmm, perhaps Joe next?"

Hayley looked shocked as well and the room fell into silence.

"This is a warning, girls, this is what happens when you don't play by my rules," He smiled.

"Why did you turn us then?" Hayley sighed. "You knew all along we weren't going to take orders from you."

Huh? William knew we wouldn't listen to him, yet he had turned us anyway?

William remained silent for a few moments before he smiled at Hayley, "Ah, I should've known that you would know about this.... After Brendon, I thought there was a chance, there might be a few more of us who could take my orders..."

She shrugged, "T-Someone told me..."

"Ah, a talented mind reader by any chance? What's your ability again, something to do with feelings?"

I stopped, someone who could read minds? I paused, maybe it was Taylor? She'd started to say a name that started with T. Was that how he'd known the night before that I wasn't coping with the conversation? And the way William was talking Hayley had an ability of her own. I'd never realised some Vampires had more powers than just super strength, senses and speed.

She bit her lip, it was obvious she'd said more than she'd meant to.

He smiled, "You know what I want though, and you know about this don't you?"

Hayley tensed as if about to launch into something when a jangling of keys could be heard.

William smiled, "Looks like your little human friends are back."

"You get out of our house." Hayley snarled angrily, "You've done enough damage so don't you even start with them."

Beckett smiled, "As you wish, bye girls."

With that the two of them left out the window.

My emotions came flooding back to me at once, and shock took over, "Look what he did to Patrick, he was getting better and everything, he was going to be okay, and... William said he wanted me to marry him, and if I don't he'll hurt Joe and Andy" I screamed in hysterics.

"It's alright Cassie." She spoke calmly. Yet, there was worry evident on her face, "Look just promise me one thing, under no circumstances should you ever agree to marry anyone, unless you really and truly love them. Even then you should be careful. The results would be a million times worse than if he turned both."

"How? One sacrifice to save two people...I hate him, but wouldn't it be worth it if I did."

"Cassie, just trust me on this one, it could destroy everything. I know I've said it about a lot of things but this one, I can't even begin to imagine the consequences..." Hayley explained, looking me straight in the eyes.

I heard footsteps right outside the door, I looked up standing there was Pete, an angry scowl on his face.

"What happened?" Pete snarled, "You did it again, did you Cassie?"

He was gesturing towards Patrick. I was mad, he couldn't possibly think I'd done this, but what evidence did I have, sure Hayley had been here for the most part, but would he really listen to her?

"No, it wasn't me, Pete. I swear, William and Brendon were here, they did this. I left the room and then he..."

"William and Brendon, here?"

"She's telling the truth Pete." Hayley nodded.

Pete glared at her, he didn't seem to believe us.

"Why? Wasn't turning Cassie enough for him, this week?"

"He's trying to force us to join the Dandies." I spoke, totally leaving out the part about the marriage, it still disgusted me too much, "He said he'll turn Joe next, if we don't."

Pete eyes grew wide. "Shit....then what did he do to Patrick?"

I was about to reply when I heard footsteps from the doorway, I looked up there was Joe and Andy standing in the doorway behind Pete.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Joe asked, "Wow, what kind of miracle is this, are you three actually talking again?"

Pete stared at him, now was not the time for someone to say that to him. Joe seemed to get the hint because then he looked further into Patrick's room his face quickly changed into that of horrified confusion. Andy didn't look too happy either.

"Okay, who's fault was it this time?" Joe groaned, "Seriously I thought I vampire proofed all the blood from you lot."

Pete looked at me, it seemed no matter what we said, he was going to make me take the blame.

All eyes were suddenly on me, Hayley groaned, "Come on Pete, it wasn't her fault."

"Yes, it is. None of this would've happened if we hadn't decided to let her be a hunter," Pete looked up at me, angrily. "Now look, Patrick's going to be a vampire and it's all your fault."

"Pete!" Joe yelled at him.

That was it, hiding my anger, I turned away. "It's okay Joe, I'm going. I don't want to be stuck with this idiot anyway."

I felt Hayley try to grab my arm to stop me, I stared back at her. I must have looked quite upset because she quickly reclined. I pushed straight past Pete, Joe and Andy and rushed into the hallway.

"Ca-" I heard Joe call from behind me.

I raced out the room, running next door into my own. I slammed the door behind me, curling up into a ball on my bed. Tears began to stream down my face, had all this hunting and fighting really been worth it, if Pete was just going to shove it back in my face like that. Though I still couldn't help but wonder if he was right, if I hadn't turned up would this have happened? I probably would've still ended up as a vampire but Patrick? Probably not. I pulled my black hoodie over my face and flung myself backwards on the bed. Everything seemed so hopeless right now.

I stretched out on the bed, but paused as I felt something hard beneath me, I jumped back from the bed. There was a CD case with a blue and black cover on it. The words "Fall Out Boy" and "Take This to Your Grave" were written on it. Clearly, judging from the photos it was from a few years earlier, but I could tell who it was. I sighed, so this must've been one of their band's album. They had said they were called Fall Out Boy, right? But what was a copy of it doing in my room?

I picked it up, curiously, turning to the place where the CD should be, but it was missing, instead there was a note that read, "Things aren't really what they seem...."-W

W? Who the heck was W? I pondered for a few seconds. Wait, I'm an idiot there was only one person that could be W....

William.

But if things aren't really what they seem, did that mean that what I'd just seen a few moments earlier hadn't really been? I flipped the note over hopping that perhaps it might help me, but the only other clue to the identity of the sender was a picture of the observatory that was on our edge of town, it had to only be a few minutes from here even at normal speed. Was that where William was right now? Should I go and talk to the others? No way, Pete was still mad at me, and I was positive that Joe and Andy probably were too. After how I'd acted with Hayley there was no way she'd listen to me either. No, I was going to have to investigate this one on my own, even if there was a strong possibility it was a trap. I closed my eyes, after what Pete had said, I didn't really care what happened to me anymore.

I grabbed a stake from the cupboard, and headed for the window. One of the best things about the warehouse is that there isn't much of a drop from the windows to the ground, making it easy to escape from here without using the front door. It also does seem to make it kind of easy for vampires to get in.

I had one leg on the window's ledge when there was a knock on the door, I quickly hid the CD behind my back and tried to stand near the window like I wasn't doing anything. The door swung open, it was Joe.

"Are you trying to leave? If it's about what Pete said then-"

I shook my head, "It's not about what Pete said...uh..."

How did I reply? Should I tell him what was happening, I mean he didn't seem to be mad at me but then he'd try and call the others and I kind of wanted to do this on my own.

"What's that in your hand then?"

I followed his gaze, he'd caught me. He was staring straight at the CD.

"Aha, music you know." I tapped it and the note just had to drop out now didn't it.

I raced to pick it up, but Joe was quicker and already had it. I waited in silence as he read through the note, he sighed, "William sent this, didn't he?"

I nodded.

"You're going to go, there, aren't you?" He pointed to the picture of the observatory.

I nodded again.

"Alone?"

"Well...yeah...everyone's mad at me...so who else?"

"Look, if you want to do this alone.... I'm not about to let you," Joe sighed, I was just about to launch into giving him a piece of my mind, "You're going to let me come with you."

Huh? Well this was what I was expecting, but not. The answer had to be no, I'd dragged enough people into my stupid mess with William tonight and I was not about to get Joe involved any more than he had to be.

"What are you crazy? You can absolutely not come with me, this could be a trap and you're a human and..."

Joe raised an eyebrow, "Funny you should say that, I'm sure I told someone once upon a time that about someone being a girl. Yet I was proved wrong."

"This is different and you know it."

He shrugged. "Not really, look, it's not like I haven't had to face William before. I know you're a vampire and your strong too, but I can't let you go alone."

Ugh, he had me there. He did have a point, what was I thinking, Joe could probably fight just as well as me, possibly even better. He seemed persistent, he'd probably hold me here all night until I agreed, I had no clue what was going on but I knew that going through all that could be wasting precious time. Would it really hurt to bring Joe along with me?

"Fine you win, you can come."

I silently hoped that I hadn't just wrongly dragged someone else into this crazy mess.


	15. Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year

Joe and I arrived at the observatory a few minutes later, we'd talked tactics on the way there, we decided no matter what happened we had to protect each other no matter what. I looked over the building it had beautiful carvings on the outside and some of the garden had grown up over it, it looked like something out of a story book. I saw that the door was open, slightly ajar. He must already be here.

I stepped inside, Joe following closely behind, there was no light except for the moonlight that was streaming through the rectangular opening in the ceiling. Stars danced and twinkled across the night sky. In the centre of the room was a giant telescope. Along the sides were metal viewing platforms. If I wasn't so nervous right now, I probably would've found this place beautiful. I could totally see why William had hinted for me to meet him here. But why?

"Impressive, isn't it?" I heard a male voice call from behind, it didn't sound like Joe though. I quickly spun around my face meeting only with his. He was looking around the edge of the viewing platforms as if searching for the noise too, so it hadn't been him. The only other person it could be was William, but, I couldn't see him anywhere.

"Where are you?" I called, walking around in circles, why hadn't he just come out in the open. "William?"

"So, you found the note, did you?" The voice was much closer now, so close I could sense someone other than Joe beside me, I turned towards it.

I looked up, my suspicions proved correct, it was William. I was annoyed, "So it was you who wrote it didn't you?"

"Naturally." William smiled, "I'm impressed you figured out the note so quick, you're smarter than I thought, Cassandra."

Was he being serious, it had been obvious. Though, ugh, why did he have to suddenly start using my full name now? It always made me feel like I was in trouble.

Joe smirked, stepping into the light, beside me, "It wasn't hard, what another person that name starts with W, would be bothering us?"

William shrugged, "Ah, so you brought Joe too? Where's this rest of your little hunter gang, hmm? I thought for sure you'd at least have Hayley with you. Never mind, you'll be enough."

Had that been his plan all along? Was Hayley supposed to have come too? And what was this about "I'll be enough", maybe coming here was a terrible idea, I should've taken the stay at home approach, not that it had done me much better last time. Whatever was going on, I was done with his talking and right now. I was willing to fight him. I raced forward, sending my fist straight towards his face and it hit absolutely nothing. Ugh.

"You'll have to be much quicker than that Cassandra," He smiled, from next to me.

"Oh, I can do much better than that." I slid my leg forward, he stumbled backwards slightly. Joe, taking the hint, quickly dashed behind him, grabbing William from behind. I only had a few seconds before, William would be able to overpower him, so I quickly pulled the stake from my pocket.

"This ends here William." I smiled, as I raised my arm up. On the descent, something stopped me. He was just gone, all that was in Joe's arms was a Dandy hat. He'd noticed too, he looked up at me. What the hell? Everything had seemed right, Joe hadn't moved, and there was no struggle from either of them. Was my vampire sight deceiving me or something. I was so confused.

I barley had a chance to blink as the stake managed to suddenly disappear from my hand, I heard a soft clunk in the distance.

"I'll be taking that."

I spun around, Beckett was now behind me. It had been him, hadn't it?

"Experience beats talent, little newbie."

Joe and I backed backwards, I could try and dart around the side, but then that would leave Joe. I know he could probably handle himself, but after what I'd just seen who knew what another tricks Beckett had up his sleeve.

My foot bumped into something that felt soft, almost squishy, I reclined backwards, as I heard a soft moan come from beneath me. I looked away from William, knowing it could spell our doom. What had I stepped on?

Huh?

Patrick?!? What was he doing here? How had William got him past Pete, Hayley and Andy. Did I miss something? I looked back to William, who was now standing there smiling back at me. Joe had followed his gaze, shock written all over his face.

 _Things aren't really what they seem._ Was this it?

"It was so easy to fool you hunters, I kidnapped him back again, when you left the room." William smiled. "It's rather amusing how you all thought that shapeshifter was the real thing. I knew you'd find that note eventually, it was just too easy."

A shapeshifter? William kidnapped back Patrick? It sounded so far-fetched yet it made so much sense. If Vampire's were possible, why weren't shapeshifters? I hadn't been anywhere near Patrick since then. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference and clearly had no one else. So, did that mean Beckett really telling us the truth?

"But why would you do that?" Joe questioned, "What's so special about Patrick that you'd go to all that trouble Beckett?"

Now, that was exactly what I wanted to know. Only a few days ago, Beckett had Patrick and myself trapped. He'd had his chance then, so why hadn't he acted then, except for you know turning me but that appeared to be another problem all together.

William smiled, as if he'd been waiting for one of us to ask him that, "If only I'd realized it sooner, your little friend's voice is the key to controlling all you hunter bloods."

Hunter bloods? What was he talking about now, and what was this about Patrick's voice? I was so confused right now.

"Oh, Hayley didn't tell you, did she? Well after what happened last time I suppose she wouldn't..."

Last time? Did that mean something like this had happened before and it involved her?

"Hunter bloods, the natural enemy of Vampires. Able to fight, with little instruction. Quite amazing really." He mused, "But you see, I've found that hunter bloods make excellent vampires. All with abilities too, impressive considering their quite rare to have in the first place. Pity, as I discovered that only a few of you are able to fall under my control...." He looked to Brendon who was emerging from the shadows behind Joe, I wanted to go and punch him, but William had my attention, "You can see where this might be a bit of a problem for me, right?"

Hunter bloods, was he talking about me? Well he had said, "you" but I had no special abilities...but then again Hayley had seemed to hint that maybe I did? I wondered, if this was all true had that been the reason I'd only needed such a small amount of training. Unless, the guys wouldn't have questioned it if they were as well. But why had none of us found this out sooner, surely Pete would've known. Was this why Hayley and Taylor had been talking about Andy and Joe for?

I wanted to ask but Beckett had begun to speak again, "Hearing of this, I decided to try and turn at least one of the hunters, the ones that I sensed had the greatest power within that group. Peter and Brendon seemed to be the leaders of the rest of them, so naturally I chose them. However, it seemed only one of them decided to join me and embrace the gift I gave them, the other just sought revenge against me."

"Brendon didn't choose you Beckett, you forced him." Joe yelled.

William shook his head, almost ignoring him, "As I was saying, without me, Peter still hasn't uncovered his full potential. It's a pity really.... Then I found you. You weren't a hunter, but you held the same presence as them. Yet there was something else about you. Well, I suppose you know what happened then...."

"Yeah, Brendon turned me, and now you won't quit bothering me," I grumbled.

Beckett continued, ". It was only then that I realized that, I'd missed him so many times. While he had been around Peter, it was difficult to sense the kind of power he may possess. You were supposed to do all this for me, if only Peter hadn't arrived earlier than I anticipated I might have just succeeded."

Okay, well that answered why he'd tricked us, but if I was supposed to have killed Patrick but Beckett still needed him in his plan, so the only way that could happen was if he would come back as a Vampire? But wait, you needed to have Vampire blood in your system. Unless, when Patrick hadn't originally been in the room until around the same time as Brendon bit me. Was it possible that William had given him Vampire blood then, without him realizing it? Or maybe Patrick knew but didn't say anything. If I was supposed to have killed him, then that was why he had sent that second lot of Dandies in, wasn't it? To take Patrick to William. It all made so much more sense now.

"But now, I finally have succeeded." He smiled,

Succeeded? Oh, hell no, he hadn't turned Patrick, had he? I thought that was the trick...but why hadn't he just done it back at the warehouse? Maybe because of Pete.

"Oh look, your friend is waking up. I'll let you fill him in..."

I bent down, William was right, he was waking up. He still looked so pale now, even more so than before. I bent down, Joe quickly knelt with me, right by my side. I knew that Beckett could come and attack the three of us at any time.

His eyes fluttered open, and grew wide when he saw me, he sounded so tired, "Cassie? Joe?"

We both nodded.

"But...you're a vampire and Joe what are you doing here...you weren't with us before..." He sat up looking around, "Wait, where are we?"

What could I tell him, with William and Brendon watching over our shoulder, it made me extremely nervous.

"Uh..." I looked to Joe for some help.

"The observatory...." Joe nodded, "we don't have much time, so I'll just say it straight, they've kind of given you vampire blood and then..."

"Wait, basically your saying like actual, Vampire turned? Your joking, right?" He looked at me, we both remained silent, "No?"

I watched as he ran his tongue over his teeth, "Nothing yet, but I'm sure there will be."

He looked around, "Where is Pete? Andy?"

"They're probably still over your fake." I said.

"My what?"

"William had a shapeshifter to trick us, into thinking he'd turned you." Joe replied.

"But you just said he did...?" Patrick mumbled, "Unless? But, why would he do that, why not that day with Cassie?"

The one question I didn't quite have the answer for, because I was still trying to work it out for myself. I couldn't possibly tell him what William was planning though and it seemed Joe wasn't going to either.

"We don't know, perch-"

"Okay, reunion time's over." William suddenly pulled us away. We were pushed straight into the arms of Brendon, I tried to pull away from him, but I was further reminded of the fact that he was still stronger than me. Ugh.

I looked at Joe hopelessly who was locked in Brendon's another arm.

He pulled a bottle of blood out from his pocket. I was surprised he hadn't brought in an actual human this time.

I tried to break free of Brendon and grab it off William, then maybe I could find a way to get Patrick out of here.

"He'll die, you idiot." Brendon hissed, pulling me back further.

Since when did Brendon care about Patrick so damn much? Silly me, since he became a part of William's grand scheme.

"Now Patrick, would you be able to drink this for me?" William smiled, placing the bottle in front of him. The faint smell of blood, filled me. If he wasn't going to have it, I would. Gosh, what was I thinking, this was an emergency and that was what I was thinking of?!

Patrick looked at him, "No."

Seemed I wasn't the only stubborn one. The whole room was silent, except for the impatient tapping of Beckett's foot.

Beckett smiled, looking back at Joe "...Or would you prefer something more alive?"

Patrick's eyes grew wide, he closed his eyes, before reopening them again and looking between Joe and the bottle. No way, he was not going to pull a me and end up attacking Joe. I'd have to stop him. He quickly scooped up the bottle and drunk it, before throwing it to the ground, a look of almost disgust on his face. He made a small wincing noise as if in pain. He raised his hand to his head. I could remember that part of becoming a Vampire, well I had been a little busy. I'd barely noticed anything else. I felt awful as I caught sight of the fangs slightly poking out from his mouth now, this still all felt so much like my fault. I don't think it helped too much what Pete had said to me before we'd left.

"There, are you happy now?" Patrick muttered, as he wiped the last of the blood from his face.

"Much better," Beckett nodded. "Now...on to the next part..."

He smiled back up at him, kicking forwards, "There's not going to be a next part..."

He made a run, he was going to try and escape. As I expected, Beckett quickly dashed in front of him stopping him in his tracks.

"You're not leaving yet, not until you agree to take orders from me." William told him, a hand on Patrick's shoulder.

"Try me."

William looked him into the eyes, I swear I saw them flash an unusual orange colour as he said, "You will take orders from me."

Come on, surely that wasn't going to work. No one would agree to something so dumb. Okay so maybe Brendon had if he was originally friends with everyone, and was now just Beckett's little pet.

"Nice try, Beckett. You're really not that creative, are you?" Patrick smiled at him. "Can I go now, I mean can all of us?"

Okay, we'd gotten through that one, but I had a feeling that wasn't the end of Williams attempts.

"Hmmm...not yet, he's just like her and the rest of them too...." He muttered to Brendon, ignoring what Patrick had said. "No matter I have ways around this..."

He fished for something in his pocket, before pulling an I-pod out. Oh, come on, honestly like that was going to work any better than his vampire mind control thing he could do. He pressed play, and music began to boom from the speakers.

_"I don't blame you for being you, but you can't blame me for hating it..._

_So, what are you waiting for?_

_Kiss her, kiss her_

_I set my clocks early because I know I'm always late..."_

Oh, my god. Of all the things, he could put on, it was that song. Their song! The song I'd heard on the radio.

William talked over it, I couldn't hear quite what he was saying, but by the suddenly malicious expression on Patrick's face it wasn't good. He nodded, almost as if William was giving him instructions. But he'd been fine a few moments ago, what on earth was going on?

 _'Your little friend's voice is the key to controlling all you hunter bloods.'_ He had been meaning Patrick right, and if he was a hunter blood but how was this all happening if it was William talking not Patrick? Ugh, this was so confusing but William clearly had a plan and he intended to stick to it.

Patrick began to walk in our direction. Moments later, Brendon pushed Joe to the ground. "Hey!" Joe yelled at him, as he pulled himself back up. As he did, Patrick stopped right in front of him. Joe looked up at him, he looked as frightened as I felt. I wanted to do something, but even I couldn't do anything, I was stuck.

"Come on Patrick, we're friends, you don't have to listen to William. Pete doesn't..." Joe pleaded, "but when does he ever listen to anyone..."

Patrick seemed to ignore him though, I could see his mouth moving as he said something to Joe. He nodded and quickly raced away, had Patrick made him run? The he turned his attention towards me, an almost teasing grin on his face.

I felt Brendon move away from me now. I was on my own, I could totally bolt out of here now that Joe was gone...but then wouldn't Brendon catch me? If I ran fast enough he wouldn't.

I bolted towards the door that we had used to come in, and watched as it slammed in my face. I gave it a kick, a small dent forming in the metal but another kick didn't do me much better. I spun around Patrick was directly behind me now. I had nowhere to go, whichever way I could run he'd probably be able to catch me.

"Patrick, don't do this! You don't have to listen to him!" I screamed at him, but he didn't slow down.

William and Brendon were laughing, I felt dizzy, the sound seemed to vibrate off the walls. He stopped a few meters before me, looking me directly in the eyes, they seemed so cold, there was something different about his tone when he told me, "Cassie, you will listen to William."

The words vibrated around in my head, listen to William... Listen to William...my head felt like it was about to explode. I wanted to scream no, but instead I replied with a calm, "Yes, Patrick."

Dazed and confused I soon found myself considering the eyes of Beckett as he held my face up, "And now that you belong to me, you will do everything I say."

It was like someone had flicked a switch, all my emotions from the past few weeks seemed to collide. I tried to fight it, but then suddenly I didn't anymore. I knew exactly what I needed to do now.

"Of course, Master Beckett."


	16. When It All Goes To Hell

The Dandies base was breathtaking, it looked like something out of an olden day photograph. The chairs were all golden plated. The walls lined with velvet red wallpaper. There were no windows, to prevent the sun from coming in. I followed quietly behind Patrick and Brendon, as William explained all sorts of information, I heard something about proper fighting protocol and not much else. I'm sure I was taking it in somewhere but examining my new environment had become something of a priority.

We came to a doorway, and Beckett lead us into a second room, the walls in this room were lined with elaborate painted portraits in golden frames, beautiful women and men lined the walls. Some with top hats and beautiful dresses. I ran my finger across a one of a young woman, with blondish white hair, she wore an elaborate floor length green dress. She looked beautiful, I wondered who she was. Continuing to follow the paintings there was one of a guy with brownish hair and-

"Cassandra, are you listening to me?" William asked, interrupting my thoughts. He was now standing in the centre of the room with Patrick and Brendon on either side of him, I wasn't doing a good job of keeping up.

I quickly jumped away from the painting, shaking my head out of it, I had to at least pretend I'd been listening, not touching the paintings "Of course, Master William."

"Good." He nodded, "Now we don't have enough time to dress you both properly, but I have something I need to do before we can head out for the night. Cassandra, I'd like you to sit here with Brendon and wait for my return. Patrick, I'll need you to come with me, there's something I need you to do for me."

Patrick nodded, beginning to step towards William.

"Wait, what about me? When will you let, me help?" I huffed at him, causing both him and Patrick to stop and face me.

"Cassandra, sweetheart you'll have your chance in due time, just be patient." William smiled at me, walking back towards me, "But, I do have one thing for you, I'd like it if you wore these gloves for me?"

He pulled out a pair of alabaster white gloves from his pocket, I looked at him. Patrick was going to probably do something wonderful for William that would help him, and I got a pair of gloves. Sure, he was my master and I'd wear them for him anyway if that was what he wanted, but gloves? What the heck were they for? There was practically nothing useful about them. I shouldn't question him though, I slid both gloves carefully onto my hands. I looked up, Beckett and Patrick were both now gone and instead I had Brendon staring me in the face, his face smug.

"I know your feeling super proud of yourself, but don't you think you're being a little too desperate?" Brendon sniggered, before saying in a high pitch squeaky voice, "Oh William, when will you let me help?"

He was imitating me? Ugh, Brendon, could really use a punch in the face right now. I liked William but I'd already decided that I didn't like Brendon though, he kept treating us like we were stupid or something. William had never told me I had to like Brendon, I didn't care if he was the second in charge around here. I felt zero loyalty towards him.

"He's my master now too, Brendon. I suggest you suck it up or leave." I spoke looking him directly in the eyes.

"I don't know why I turned you, Cassandra, you turned out to be such a bitch."

"I do my best, Brendon. I may think the world of William, but I'll never think anything of you." I told him pointing my finger at him, before turning away from him.

"That's a bit harsh, isn't it?"

"Well you called me a bitch." I spun around, my hands firmly on my hips, "I resemble nothing of a female dog."

Brendon paused, as if he was about to say something, but he simply turned away, taking a seat on one of the couches, in the corner of the room. He spent the next few minutes there sulking in the corner. Well? He'd deserved it. Just because he was jealous that Patrick and I had come along and taken attention away from him didn't mean he had to act like such a complete jerk.

Carefully I took a seat on the opposing side of the room. The seat wasn't that comfortable, I mean it was probably from the 1800's or whatever era William was trying to create in this place, so what had I been expecting? Maybe comfortable chairs hadn't existed to much later.

William slammed the door open, I could see Patrick standing behind him, he looked between us, sitting on two sides of the room and shrugged, "Come on, we're going."

********************

The main street of Chicago was lovely at night. Lights flashed happily at me. Brendon walked in front of the two of us, and a small ensemble of Dandies completed the formation. William had gone another direction, with another set of Dandies following behind. I had no wish to be left with Brendon, in charge of me but that was William had said, so I didn't really have a lot of choice. No one had really told me where we were going tonight or what we were doing, William had just said we were going out, and I guess that was that.

"So, Brendon what exactly is it we're doing tonight?" I asked.

Brendon smiled, "Simple, William invited the hunters and we're going to capture them for him."

Capture the hunters? But who were the hunters? How was I supposed to capture them? I wanted to ask, but Brendon was sure to give me a just as stupid answer. But if I didn't ask anything, William would be so mad at me if I were to do the wrong thing. I didn't want to find out what he did to those who disobeyed him. Perhaps I should have been listening when he'd be telling us back at the Dandies mansion.

"How are we capturing them, then? Is there a certain plan in place that I should be aware of?"

"You can handle this can't you or is that too much for a girl?"

"Excuse me but being a girl does not make me any less capable than you Brendon. I was simply asking what the plan was for capturing them? It wasn't a question of my capabilities"

"She has a point you know, Brendon." Patrick defended.

Brendon rolled his eyes, "Why did William leave me with the two of you, I don't care how powerful your supposed to be, your both not good enough to be Dandies."

"Not good enough?" Patrick looked at him. "I'm pretty sure I am."

"Well, do you at least know what you have to do Patrick?"

He nodded, "Of course."

Brendon sighed, "Whatever, but remember, Master William wants them all back alive. So, don't any of you get too carried away."

"Yes, Brendon." We chorused with the other Dandies.

"Now newbies, I should mention that when I drop the glove, it is the time to act, no sooner nor later."

A jet-black car appeared. The hunters. There was four of them, Pete, with black hair that fell over his eye and wore a black hoodie stood at the front, behind him was a shorter orange haired girl, Hayley then there was a guy with glasses and straight hair, Andy I think and a frizzy haired guy that I knew to be Joe.

Instinctively, I pulled the collar on my jacket up, just as Brendon dropped the glove from his hands, in the batter of an eyelid, a group of blurs moved fluidly through the square. I looked beside me, Patrick was no longer standing where he once was, and when I looked back even Brendon was now gone.

However, the hunters were all still standing by the car, I froze, who was I going to go for. The guys all looked much stronger than me and it looked like three other Dandies were just reaching them, so that just left Hayley who looked to racing away out the side. She was fast though. I spotted a flash of orange, and immediately followed it. If I wasn't quick enough, I'd lose her. I followed her down into a dark alleyway. I soon noticed that none of the other Dandies had followed me in following Hayley, as I could only hear our footsteps as we raced along the concrete. She must have noticed this, as she turned to look behind her, she looked away for a second and then quickly looked back. I expected her to speed up, but she halted to a stop, turning the full way around and blocking the path.

"Cassie?" She questioned, pushing her side fringe out of her eyes.

I smiled, "Hayley."

"Where did you get off to? I know Pete was mad at you and he shouldn't have said that but it doesn't mean you have to run off." She lectured.

I wasn't sure what she was talking about, I tried to find meaning in her words but I found none. I couldn't remember Pete being mad at me, or ever running off. When had I ever had anything to do with Pete, or Hayley for that matter. It was weird, it was like I knew them but I didn't.

Hayley was still chattering away, something about coming home and Joe. I smiled, now while she was distracted, was my chance. If I could just put her off balance for a moment, I'd be able to find a way to take her to William. I leaped forward, my right fist out in front of me as I went, flying towards her. She looked up quickly, barely battering an eyelid as she blocked it with her hand. Her fist clenched down on mine as she held it in place for a few seconds. I wriggled my hand eventually pulling it out. Before she had a chance to react I swung my left leg forward, I felt it skim past hers. She tripped slightly and taking my chance, I pushed her into the wall.

"What the hell's wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong with me."

"Of course, not, that's what they all say..." She sighed, "Well if that's the case then, I'm not going to hold back then either."

She somehow managed to push me off, and I quickly found that I was now the one pushed up against the wall. The concrete dug into my skin, as she put one hand on my throat, pushing me tighter into the wall. I tried to push her off, but she was much stronger. She was going to kill me now wasn't she, I closed my eyes. I'd made the wrong choice.

I felt something grab the edge of my jacket arm, I re-opened my eyes to find that Hayley was using her free arm to pull it towards her. What the heck? I tried dragging it back from her but she simply removed the glove from my hand before tossing it onto the ground like trash. Her hand brushed past mine as a shiver went through me, I froze.

What was I trying to do? Hayley was my friend, why the heck was I trying to fight her? Moments flashed before my eyes, it was like watching the life of someone else flash behind your eyes. I'd been helping the Dandies, hadn't I? Why would I do something like that though? Right, because Beckett had pretty much told me to. I blinked I still felt a little drowsy as if someone had woken me up too early or something. I looked in front of me, Hayley still had her hand on my throat, and was holding me to the wall. There was a hint of nervousness in her eyes.

"Could you let me go of me now?" I managed to croak out at her.

She looked at me suspiciously but still, she slowly released her hand from my throat. I slid down to the ground, clutching at my throat.

"Ow. Can I just say that hurt, a lot?" I frowned up at her.

Her face lit up almost instantly with excitement, "Wow, I'm surprised that actually worked."

What worked? Ugh, I was too tired to ask...I sat there for a few moments, my strength returning to me. I pulled myself back up, brushing the dust off me. I looked at Hayley who was watching me carefully.

"Sorry about that...there was William and there was Patrick...and wow I don't even know..." I mumbled, there wasn't much more I could say about it. Trying to remember what had happened since that observatory was like listening to a song where the track kept skipping.

"Patrick? William? Geez, Cassie what the hell happened? How did you end up like this...please don't tell me William can control you now too? You didn't end up actually taking up his offer, did you?"

William had control of me, hadn't he? The last thing I could properly remember was William telling me what to do, but Patrick he was there too. It was Patrick, but it wasn't him. He'd come up to me right before that. It had been whatever he'd said to me that had done this, hadn't it?

"No, I mean maybe; but look it wasn't completely him, if I remember right it was Patrick. Look just don't listen to anything Patrick says."

"I better grab some earplugs then." She smiled, almost as if I'd just told her a joke.

"No, I'm serious, that's how I think he did this to me, you better be careful too."

She'd probably know what I was on about, but I didn't think now was the time to mention the Hunter Blood thing to her. If my suspicions proved correct and Hayley was somehow a hunter blood too, Patrick could just as easily do the same thing to her. William had said that Patrick's voice was the key to controlling the hunter bloods after all?

"Patrick? What do you mean he did this to you?" She looked at me, "But, Pete always said he was the nice one."

"Not now, Beckett turned him, played one of their bands songs and he seems to can control us.... "

"Controlled him with music? Turned him?" Hayley sighed, "Seems William's more onto this whole thing than I thought...anyway we've wasted enough time, we better get moving...I'm almost positive that Pete and I are his next targets..."

I nodded, "Or we're going to have to try and find a way to stop Pete too..."

She nodded, "Yes, because if William has both Pete and Patrick then there's no simple way we can stop any of them before William gets what he wants."

There was no way we could stop any of them? I didn't want to find out whether she was exaggerating. I couldn't hide from the truth any longer, William wanted us all, he needed every single one of us Hunter Bloods on his side if he was to have the kind of power he wanted and save his clan from the hunters. I knew that if Pete ended up like I was a few moments earlier, he seemed as strong as Hayley and probably more so that I. Patrick could easily be forced to bring Hayley and I onto William's side. Then from what he'd said the night before I could bet that he'd try and turn Joe and Andy next. There was no way I wanted to see any of that happen. So, we just had to hope that we weren't too late, and that he hadn't succeeded already.

This was going to be a long night....


	17. From Now On We're Enemies

**(Cassie's POV)**

Hayley and I raced out of the alleyway and back into the main concourse. I was amazed, there were Dandies everywhere. It seemed their numbers had grown exceedingly in the past few weeks. They had humans up against walls, they were swinging them. It was absolute chaos. The worst thing of all though, that I kind of wanted to join them. I shook my head as I spotted a group of vampires with spiky hair beating one of the Dandies. I had a feeling even though they were attacking them they weren't going to be helping us, we had to be careful. The Dandies may be the most prominent in the area, but they weren't the only Vampires in town. I didn't want to find out how friendly these other groups were.

"We have to find everyone." Hayley spoke, as she moved her head, clearly examining the scene.

I thought I saw a guy that looked like Pete, but when they moved their head I realized it was just a Dandy. How on earth were we going to find them, there was so many vampires here that it was almost impossible to find anyone.

"Easier said than done," I replied.

"Cassie!" She suddenly screamed, I looked back around, a fair toned male with a black bandana on, clearly a vampire had her by the throat, in his hand he held what looked to be a sword.

His hand was already moving towards her chest. No way. Thinking quickly, I dashed forward, knocking the sword straight out of his hand and into my own. He seemed put off for a few moments, even releasing his grip on her. She must have noticed because she quickly pushed herself out, and pinned him to the ground with her foot. So, what were we going to do now?

Hayley raised her palm out, I looked down, I still had the sword in my hand. I gave it to Hayley and looked away as she dealt with him.

"Is that Pete over there?" Hayley was back by my side and, pointing to the brick wall over the other side of the square.

I squinted, I could see exactly who she was talking about. There was another guy standing in front of him, I squinted, shit it looked like Patrick.

"Looks like it...damn, I think Patrick might have already found him though." I replied.

I could hear Hayley mutter an 'oh no.' Instantly I raced forwards, I knew she'd probably follow me.

"PETE, STOP!!" I screamed, god I hoped he'd hear me.

******************************************

**(Pete's POV)**

Why was I such an idiot?

Cassie was missing, Patrick was missing kind of. Joe had been too, but he'd turned back up, muttering something about Patrick and the town square. I wondered where exactly he'd learnt all this, but when we'd asked him he hadn't had an answer. Almost as if he'd been sworn to secrecy. I had a feeling I didn't want to know who by. Andy had somehow managed to decipher some of what he said, but I'd zoned out, panic was setting in and I began to jump to conclusions, Patrick was really and truly missing. All I'd been able to tell that Cassie had most likely run away because of what I'd said to her, and whatever Patrick we'd been left with was not the real one and that William clearly had something to do with it. I was going to kill him when I next saw him. I can't believe I'd thought that thing...was real.

Tonight, surprisingly, I was the last one out of the car, as pissed off as I was, I was in no mood to fight. I could see Brendon in the distance, and saw his glove drop to the ground. So, it was obviously the Dandies again tonight. They were exactly who I didn't want to see. I'd hate to think what was going to happen if they'd had something to do with Patrick and Cassie again. William was sure going to get it from me if he'd done anything else to them. At least maybe I might finally get my chance of revenge on him for what he did to me.

I looked around, Hayley, Joe and Andy had already raced off. Now I just needed to find tonight's target, maybe Brendon if I could find him. Something caught my eye to the left of the square, what looked like a blondish, brown haired guy with a black cap on. He wasn't one of the Dandies, but he wasn't Joe or Andy either. In fact, he wasn't dressed like any of the local groups. In fact, as I walked closer it looked like he had Joe up against the wall. The only person I knew that dressed like that was Patrick, but, that couldn't be him, could it? I'd kind of expected William to be somewhere close to him, if in fact he was the reason why we were here. But who else would be wearing a cap exactly like the one's he wears?

"Patrick!" I yelled.

I slowed down, as he spun towards me way quicker than he should've been able to. Them I spotted them, fangs. I froze, I couldn't believe it.

Wait, he was a vampire, anyway? I was so confused. I thought that thing that had been there in his place hadn't that really been him? But surely Cassie or Hayley would've seen something then.

"Pete." He smiled, dropping Joe to the ground. Something was wrong though, almost strained. No, even as a Vampire, none of my friends had changed like this, except Brendon....but Patrick would never work for William, or would he? After what William had done to Brendon's family I'd never had thought any of us would. Especially not Patrick, there had always been an extremely dark side to Brendon, that he didn't show too often. But Patrick well? Like everyone he had his moments, but nothing like this.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Patrick smiled, "Things changed..."

"Run Pete, it's not him anymore." Joe interrupted from the ground.

Patrick looked down at him, staring him in the eyes, he spoke, almost songlike, "Joe go find Andy."

Joe simply nodded, and magically picked himself up from the ground. I was impressed, but also a little frightened. I had an awful feeling about this.

"How could you do that to someone? Going around and controlling people like that, I thought you would be better than that. I guess that means you're working for William, now are you?"

"You should address him as Master William, Pete."

Master William? Oh, come on, what was the world doing to me this time, there was no way I could fight my best friend. Even if he was now working for the evillest vampire in town. Joe was right, he wasn't himself anymore, it was like Brendon all over again. Things would never be the same way again. Nervously, I fumbled for my stake in my back pocket. I didn't want to have to do this, but I didn't need any more enemies. I pointed it towards him, my eyes meeting with his, and then I was caught. My body didn't seem to be able to move any further. What the hell?

He smiled at me, no. Come on why couldn't I just move?

"You will--"

He just stopped mid-way through the sentence. Almost as if he was stuck too. After a few seconds, I could move again, I shook my head, shaking that unusual feeling off. He still looked to be stuck though. I waved my hand in front of Patrick, I felt my hand brush against the skin on his face, it wasn't warm like it used to be. Patrick's shoulders suddenly moved and I jerked backwards in shock.

"Pete? Huh what are you doing here? There was just Cassie and Joe here before...In fact, what was I doing?" He shook his head, looking and sounding more confused than anything else. He wasn't anything like he had been just a few seconds ago, it was almost like he was himself again. I looked at my hand, then back at Patrick, had I done something.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, Pete. Come on, I'm not that scary, am I?"

I shook my head, "You were so different and yes, scary...I mean how did you become a vampire?"

Patrick shrugged, "I don't really remember how...it hurt though..."

"I know all about that..." I sighed, I didn't want to hear any further, I didn't really feel like reliving becoming a vampire for the thousandth time.

"So, if you were working for him, any idea what William's plan is."

Patrick shook his head, "Sorry, I don't have a clue. It's like looking into a black hole whenever I think of about anything since except that conversation I had with Cassie and Joe."

"I suppose we're just going to have to work it out as we go."

"What about Cassie, you said you talked to her?"

Patrick shrugged, "I don't know, what happened after that. She was with Joe.

"But Joe came back to us, she didn't."

"I'm sorry but I really don't know Pete."

"PETE, STOP!!!!"

That voice, Cassie?

I spun around, sure enough Cassie was bounding towards us, Hayley trailing closely behind her.

She looked between us, "Who's your master?"

My master? Oh, she was referring to Patrick wasn't she. Patrick had said she was there when, whatever caused him to be like this had happened. If she'd probably been there, then she would've known.

"Um...no one...why?" Patrick raised an eyebrow.

She sighed, "Thank god. William's not controlling you anymore"

I raised an eyebrow. "So where were you all this time?"

Cassie looked away. She clearly wasn't going to talk about it.

"So, uh, I hope this isn't rude, but who are you?" Patrick asked pointing at Hayley.

"Oh yeah, you two haven't met before have you?" I sighed, "Patrick this is Hayley."

"It's nice to meet you." Patrick gave a small nod.

"Pete's told me a lot about you," Hayley smiled.

Ugh, why did she have to say that...it made me sound like I talked about him non-stop. Well I had told her about everyone, except Cassie at some point or another so it made sense.

"Anyway, we need to find Joe and Andy, any clue to where they might be?"

"Last I saw of Joe, Patrick had him held up against the wall, and sent him to find Andy, so it's likely their together"

Patrick frowned, it was obvious he wasn't too happy learning of anything that had happened while he'd been under Beckett's control. I wouldn't be either, I'd hate to think what that lowlife would make me do.

"You Hunters are so strange, you managed to evade even that?" A voice muttered.

I froze, it didn't sound at all like William and Beckett. Slowly, I turned around...


	18. Last Hope

**(Cassie's POV)**

"You Hunters are so strange, you managed to evade even that?"

A tremor of fear rose through me as I instantly realized that the voice didn't belong to Beckett or William. There couldn't be someone else helping them could there? I clearly wasn't the only one, in unison, the four of us turned around, I couldn't believe it, standing in front of us dressed in full Dandy get-up was Taylor. I looked around, the area behind us apart from him had now cleared, I'd barely noticed. It was clear that Beckett wasn't behind us and neither was anyone else. There was only two people who could have said it, and they weren't quite who I was expecting. When we'd been talking back at the warehouse he'd seemed to be on our side. I couldn't even picture him saying that, but I'd only talked to them for a few moments so what did I know?

I looked beside me, Hayley had her hands on her hips, she didn't look too impressed, "Okay, Taylor you can quit it right now, if you can't already tell the plan failed...you don't have to pretend for Beckett anymore."

There was a pause, before he both started to laugh. My stomach sunk, this wasn't looking good. I didn't want to say he had betrayed us, but it was seriously starting to sound that way.

"But Hayley, I'm not pretending...." He smiled as if he had been waiting just to say those words.

I stepped backwards, the weight of his words sinking in. He wasn't joking, they weren't helping us anymore. I couldn't stop myself from wondering why the sudden change in heart; had he been fooling us all along? Hayley had said we could trust him, couldn't we? But he was a Dandy after all, and we'd known all along that he could turn his back on us at any moment. Yet, in any fact something still seemed wrong about all this, I barely knew him but it still seemed wrong. It reminded me of something but I couldn't think what exactly.

Before I could come up with the answer, I saw a hint of movement, and soon found that he was heading towards us, to be more exact Hayley. Maybe, I could stop him. Almost without thinking, I leaped sideways, finding my footing on the ground. Two seconds later I was suddenly tossed to the ground by a force from the opposite direction. I felt a sharp pain in my hand. I raised my had to my face, just in time to see a faint line of blood appear before quickly fading. I looked back up, who'd pushed me though? Standing where I had been being Pete, he had his fists up and was staring down Taylor. Patrick was standing back to the side clearly, looking frightened and confused, he'd missed everything. Heck, I was positive he didn't know who they were, let alone why we were so upset. He hadn't exactly been awake when Taylor had come by the warehouse.

Pete snarled at him, "We trusted you."

"Well I suppose you put your trust in the wrong place then, hunter."

"Don't you-"

Hayley shook her head and pushed Pete to the side, "Pete out the way, I'll handle this."

Pete glared at her,it was obvious he didn't like Hayley questioning his actions and ordering him around, Hayley continued to stare at him, he shrunk backwards, moving to stand beside her.

"Well if that's the way your going to be, then I have no choice." Hayley spoke firmly, yet something hinted in her voice that maybe she was about to cry or something.

What followed next, was insane. Suddenly they were fighting, it was almost impossible to see who was where, who was attacking who. I pulled myself up, what was I doing still sitting on the ground? Hayley and Pete needed some extra help.

Now I could see properly I grabbed onto an arm, I could faintly see a hint of orange hair or the other side, I hoped I had this right. Tightening my grip, I tried to drag the arm downwards, and it was moving. Then it suddenly wasn't anymore, I was flung backwards, barely managing to land on my two feet. I looked back up again, now it was clear to see that it was Pete and Taylor fighting, A second Dandy stood over Hayley. It looked as though she had been pushed away too. She pulled herself back up quickly, continuing to fight him again. Was this ever going to end?

That was exactly it. We could fight them as much as we wanted, and we'd get nowhere or one of us would end up getting killed. Patrick was still standing over to the side looking confused, even with him helping us by fighting we wouldn't be able to stop them. But there was something he could do wasn't there, why hadn't I thought of it earlier, it was like looking into fog, but I could faintly remember that Beckett had taken Patrick away claiming he had a job to do. Had that been what had happened? Perhaps. The way they were acting reminded me of Brendon, and if everyone was sure that he was under Beckett's control and sire bonded to him. Though Taylor had seemed to suggest that maybe he wasn't sired to him properly, kind of like the rest of us. So that meant that the only reasonable explanation was that William had made Patrick turn them against us. I mean, if he'd been able to turn me against the others, could he do the same thing back the other way. Well, it was worth the shot.

"Patrick do something!" I yell at him, hoping that he'll know exactly what I mean.

Instead he just looks at me, "Like how? I can't fight that well...."

"The singing thing?" I interrupted him, he still showed no hint of recognition on his face, "You know, how you caused them to be like this?"

Patrick blinked at me. He had no clue what I was on about did he? I groaned, our best hope at getting out of this mess was completely oblivious to what he could do. If only there was a way I could tell him but I didn't even know how to explain what he'd done, when honestly I couldn't even explain it myself. There was one way though...

"Just sing anything!"

"Cassie-"

"That won't be necessary," Taylor grabbed Patrick and I at once. I groaned, now we were caught and I hadn't even solved anything. I looked over, Pete and Hayley were caught in a set of Dandie's arms. Hayley looked like she was trying to bite him, but it didn't look like she was getting too far. Maybe I shouldn't have pulled out of the fight, clearly having three of us had put us at an advantage or at least an equal one.

Struggling, I spotted something in the distance. It looked like two guys, and they looked to be carrying something, no, someone. I focused in, Brendon and Beckett were heading towards us, and in their arms was a struggling Joe and Andy. No way, they couldn't have captured them, it was just what we didn't need right now. I should've thought of it sooner though, what was to bet that this was all part of their plan to separate us. There hadn't been anyone there to help.

As they came closer the smell of blood filled the air. Instinctively, I searched for the source, finding it trickling down, Joe's neck, where a sword, possibly Andy's was held at the end of the cut, I followed it along to find that Brendon was holding it. He then tossed it to William who, did the same to Andy.

My throat ached. How long had it been since I'd had blood? I couldn't even remember. Clearly a little too long, I thought to myself bitterly. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to....

I shook my head this was Andy and Joe, you can't let Beckett and Brendon get into your head. I managed to move my head slightly sideways, Patrick was staring at the blood. I wasn't the only one having problems with it, clearly. Moving my head the other way, Hayley and Pete had stopped struggling it and were looking directly at it. This was like torture almost, so many things had happened lately that we'd barely fed, and Beckett was clearly playing right into that. As much as I hated the idea, I couldn't help but wonder, who was going to end up breaking away and moving first?


	19. Revenge And It's Thrills

"Joe! Andy!" I screamed, my voice dying out near the end, I was so thirsty. I could feel a sharp pain in my lower lip, I was biting down on it. Which could only mean one thing. I tried to think of something else, I looked over to Patrick. Think about, what you did to him. You can't let that happen again. I had to admit that the blood was g- I stopped myself, I couldn't think like that either, maybe trying to focus the on something else around me wasn't that great an idea.

I turned my head back to face William who was smiling at us, how I wanted to wipe that smug look straight off his face. After the hell, he'd put us through. He well and truly deserved it.

All I could do was stare as he passed Andy over to another Dandy that had now come up beside him. He walked towards us,

"Your both no longer under my control it seems, and Patrick failed with his task," William frowned, looking between Patrick and I, "Surprising really, I don't understand what could have happened but nevertheless, the plan can still go on. I have all of you here now, and in this state, none of you can really stop me from turning the last two pieces. Then I'll finally have the power I need."

The last two pieces? Did he mean Joe and Andy? It seemed likely, Hayley had said if anything happened to them it would throw off everything. I was sure from what Beckett was saying turning them would bring Hayley's fears to light. She hadn't exactly told me what they were, but her hints had made it seem that it involved Beckett.

"There's still time to quit this...." Hayley yells at him, as Beckett turns his direction to Hayley and Pete.

"What can you do now, Hayley?" He laughs, "You seem to be a little stuck."

"Think about this Beckett. You know what's going to happen if you go through with this."

He smiles at her, "Of course I do, and it's precisely what I want."

"You really want to do that to all of us? Don't you think you've messed up our lives enough already?"

"By that point you won't care. You refused to join me, so therefore your all abominations to our kind."

"I can see why you'd want to, transferring all our powers to yourself and being able to control us it's like a dream come true for you isn't it? But, you do realize you won't be able to handle the power though, no one could handle that much power on their own."

No way. He'd be able to do that? Then we truly would be monsters. We really would be like the vampires from nightmares. My few moments of being a Dandy had really shown that to me, and I knew I'd only scratched the surface. If Beckett had all our power not that I really knew what anyone could do besides, Taylor and Patrick. It truly would destroy everything.

William had walked away from us now, and was back by Brendon's side. Andy was back locked in his grasp. I could see him struggling but, William still was much stronger than him.

Was I seriously going to just watch him do this. But what could I really do? You're a vampire now dammit. Surely there's something, another go of trying to get away couldn't hurt surely? I closed my eyes, focusing on what I needed to do.

"That's enough!" I screamed, blinking away all thoughts of blood, monsters, as I pushed straight out of Taylor's grip. It had seemed almost impossible a few moments ago, but with the looming threat approaching, it was like having a second gust of strength.

Surprisingly Beckett looked up, I stared him straight in the eyes. I could sense the fear in his eyes, he hadn't been expecting me to break free so easily. I had to work quickly though, from experience, if he realized that there was a flaw in his plan he would probably try and disappear again at any moment. That was what he did best right?

"You heard me. You stay right away from them." I snarled, moving forward towards them. Taylor hadn't grabbed me yet, I guess that hadn't been part of William's instructions, so he was powerless until he was told what to do.

"Taylor, gr-" William started to yell, but something stopped him, he was staring at Patrick. He paused, I spotted his ear prick up curiously.

_"So long live the car crash hearts ..."_

I looked behind me, Patrick had a wistful, yet almost determined look on his face, as he tapped his foot along to the words he was singing. What the heck? Why on earth was he was singing at a time like this? Wait, had he somehow understood what I'd said about his singing. In the past few moments of craziness I'd almost forgotten. Whatever it was Hayley and Pete were now almost magically breaking away from the Dandies.

_"long live the car crash hearts..."_

William was falling to his knees. So were the other Dandies, except for Brendon. Andy punched him in the face and managed to race away from him. I'd never seen him move so fast, it almost wasn't human. A few moments later, Joe did pretty much the same. A strange buzzing sensation came over me. I looked behind me, just as Pete placed a hand to the ground, causing the whole street to shiver beneath us. A massive crack forming directly at William's feet. There was genuine fear in his eyes. A group of Dandies came up from behind Taylor and he just swatted them away.

"Come on, let's go." Pete was now right beside me, Hayley following after him. "Or we'll miss him."

I nodded, racing along with them towards William.

He was still on his knees, his teeth gritted in pain. We stood above him.

"You can't escape now." I snarled.

"Please show mercy, I'm sorry, I promise not to try that again..." he whimpered sounding like a scared little kid and I almost would've believed him if not for the events of the past few weeks.

"Sorry's not going to cut it for what you did to us." Hayley butted in, taking the words from my mouth.

Pete was no longer standing with us, he was creeping up behind William. I could faintly see small charges of what looked like electricity around his hand. I tried not to watch him, or I knew that William would surely notice.

"Anything, please." He pleaded.

Hayley shook her head, but she froze half-way looking at where I knew Pete was. I took a quick glance, Pete was striking down his fist, but behind him was Brendon, a silver object in his hand. Oh heck no. Surely Pete would see him. William was turning around, he'd noticed Hayley and I looking behind him.

"Pete!" I yelled, but it was too late Brendon was already driving the object into Pete's back.

I heard a faint tearing noise, like the ripping of fabric, then Pete let out a large scream and a few moments later, he fell backwards and William forwards only seconds later. Pete had struck William, I was sure, but it looked as though Brendon had struck Pete as well.

Brendon laughed, looking at Hayley and I, "You killed my leader, I killed yours. Amazing how a little holy water through the heart can stop vampire wounds from healing."

Had I just heard that right, surely that wasn't true. As I looked at Brendon standing there with that gleeful look in his eyes, I realized that I'd never felt so much hate towards someone who was standing in front of me. If it was true that they'd been friends, then even as a vampire how could he do that. I still didn't really see Pete as our leader, but perhaps in many ways he probably was.

"You, you monster." I snarled at him, unsure of what else to say.

"I know I am, Princess." He smiled. "Just doing my job."

In a dazed blur, I watched Joe come out of nowhere, and make a leap for him, but he quickly feinted left before running off into the distance. I tried to race after him, for what he did to Pete, he would pay. A hand, Hayley's stopped me.

"Let Joe handle it." She whispers.

I watch as Joe and Brendon's silhouette's fade. I want to follow, I don't want him to get away. He- Calm down, I tell myself. Pete might still be okay.

"Pete...." Hayley mumbles.

My attention went straight back to him. He was lying motionless, there was no sign of movement. Brendon hadn't been joking, after all that we'd been through he couldn't have really killed Pete?

"Please tell me he was kidding...he'll heal, right?" I muttered looking up at Hayley.

She simply shook her head back at me. I could see a single tear falling down her face. It was all beginning to feel far too real. If Hayley was crying, it was true, wasn't it?

When I looked back again, Patrick was kneeling on the other side, his hand outstretched. As if somehow, he could fix Pete. I really wish he could. I had a feeling there wasn't probably a song for this.

It was catching, Tears streamed down my face. After all that revenge he'd fought for. We were supposed to kill William not Pete too. How did things end up this way?


	20. Future

I was a crying mess by the time Andy and Joe re-joined us. It all didn't seem real, I known something like this could happen but it had never seemed like so much of a possibility. Everything had been going our way until-

"Look." Hayley whispered.

Slowly I raised my head up, and looked through my hair. What was Hayley telling me to look at? Pete was still lying on the ground, nothing miraculous about that. Then I realized what she was talking about, Pete chest was almost completely healed, his red hoodie wasn't of course, but his eyes were flickering and he didn't look quite so dead.

"Pete!" I gasped, I was dreaming, wasn't I?

He sat up, putting his hand to his chest. "Brendon, didn't?"

"Oh, he did." Joe mumbles, "He didn't go halfway with trying to kill you. Holy water, stake and all-"

Had there really been Holy Water on the stake though, if he'd been able to heal?

On the opposite side, Patrick looked like a kid on Christmas, he quickly glommed onto Pete.

Beside me, Hayley's shaking her head, "You must have nine lives or be darn lucky, Wentz. I don't think any Vampire has survived anything like it. I don't believe it."

No one's survived? But I couldn't quite help but wonder how Pete had beaten the odds. There had to be an explanation somewhere....

"Come on, Cassie we're going back now. It's daylight in an hour." Taylor told me.

I nodded, Hayley and I were walking home.

***************************

Hayley smiled, as we arrived back at the warehouse a few minutes later, "Well this wasn't how I was expecting things to end."

"That was how we should've handled him from the start," Pete mumbled.

"But we couldn't, it wasn't till Patrick's song..." I added.

"He should've turned Patrick first then."

Patrick glared at him, it was bad enough that Patrick was a vampire now, even if it had happened earlier I don't think we would've had the same result. William would have still turned him against Pete, Andy and Joe. I couldn't help but feel a little selfish though, what if Patrick had been turned first, would I have ended up as a vampire? What about Pete? Or even Brendon? Speaking of Brendon, where exactly was he?

"What about Brendon though?" I interrupted, I'd been so focused on Pete that I'd barely noticed.

"He fled," Joe sighed. "Andy and I tried to catch him, but we're still not quite fast enough."

"It's kind of odd though, I would've honestly thought after we killed William he'd go back to being well...him." Pete mumbled.

What was Brendon like when he had been human? I always thought of him as a vampire, and an annoying one at that. Perhaps he might have been kind, or his jokes might have been funny. Nah, I just couldn't picture him that way.

Hayley nodded, "Me too."

"Hayley, you barely knew him." Pete stared at her.

She shrugged, "I know, but it's just that usually after their masters are killed off the sire bond fades straight away."

Joe nodded, "I remember finding that in a book once? You think that's not just a myth?"

"Well in this case, it doesn't seem to apply. But Sire bonds are real, I've seen them."

"Where?"

Hayley shakes her head.

"Anyway, Brendon might not be right where I want him, but, I could get used to this." Pete smiled, poking Joe in the side, causing him to jump into the air.

"Hey! That hurt Pete!" He yelled at him, rubbing his side.

Pete shrugged his shoulders, "I didn't do anything."

Joe scowled at him.

"It's Cassie you should be watching, she went total vampire on Beckett."

"I wouldn't exactly have said that-" I countered, looking at Pete.

"Your eyes were glowing bright red, I think that counts."

Red? I was still working these kinds of things out but red had probably meant I was mad, no wonder William looked so frightened. I simply nodded, I didn't feel like discussing it any further. I was trying as hard as possible to forget that I was a monster.

There was silence, after that it appears no one knew what to say about it either.

"So, what next team, now we've rid Chicago of the evilest vampire in town?" Joe asked, breaking it.

"Retirement?" I joked.

"I wouldn't get too excited yet...the Dandies aren't the only Vampires in Chicago....much less the world." Hayley sighed.

"Chicago's not the only town that has Vampires?" I questioned.

"Is Chicago the only place that has humans?"

"Okay, I get your point."

"But surely, they wouldn't bother us." Patrick sighed.

"I don't know, I mean once someone finds out what happened, they might. Other Vampires would see it as a challenge." Taylor nodded, "Plus, the Dandies had friends in other places. Word is sure to spread."

"Okay, we'll let's not worry about that," Hayley sighed, "Let's just think of the future, and shall I say it's looking pretty bright?"

"Bright, like the sun's going to be when it comes up soon."

"Ugh, we better go inside then. I do not feel like finding out what happens when vampires are put into direct sunlight."

"They crumble."

"Thanks Pete." I sigh, shaking my head.

"Shall we go inside then?" Taylor asks, looking back at the sky.

Following his gaze, I take one feeble look at the hint of orange that was now starting to appear at the edge of the sky. It's almost bittersweet, how I wished I could still go out in the sun again. I'd always cursed it growing up, because it meant I had to go to school or to face the day. Finally, I'd gotten revenge on William for doing this to me. Pity, Brendon still wasn't a pile of ash yet but the thought that he could be miles away right now did make me feel a little better.

"You heard what Pete said, do you want to turn to dust?" Patrick asked.

I shook my head, and followed everyone else inside. Joe and Andy had already turned the television on and were playing combat game. You'd think after tonight they would've had enough of those. Hayley and Taylor were already sitting at the kitchen table, mugs in their hands. Patrick, who had been walking in-front of me, chased after Pete mumbling something about making sure he had healed properly.

As I watched on, I sighed, there were still so many mysteries unsolved, so much I still needed to learn about my new life and still quite new friends. I had a feeling that Taylor was right, more vampires would come to try and challenge us, we had eternity and you couldn't quite expect it to be like this the entire time. But for now, at least things were peaceful and I intended to enjoy it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I kind of ended up posting the rest of the chapters anyway! o:  
> Thank you so much to anyone that read all the way to the end! 
> 
> I'll post the first chapter of the edited version of the second book right after this. It's called Put On Your War Paint so if you enjoyed this then look out for it. I do have it posted on my Wattpad but some of the things I took out of this one are mentioned so it might be a little confusing.  
> Meanwhile I'm going back to writing The Sun Will Rise and a bunch of other stories I have planned. ^^


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